title: Gabon national football team

text: Gabon made their debut on 13 April 1960 by entering the first Friendship Games ("Jeux de L'Amitié") tournament, created for French-speaking African countries (a precursor to the modern African Games), held in Antananarivo, Madagascar. In the First Round they were drawn against Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), who were also making their debut, and lost 5–4, despite leading 3–2 at half-time. They did not play another match for over a year and a half, until the next time the tournament was staged, in December 1961 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. They were drawn in Pool 3 alongside Cameroon and Senegal. Gabon began the tournament with a 3–2 defeat to Senegal on Christmas Day, before being thrashed 6–0 by Cameroon on Boxing Day, finishing bottom of their group. A few months after the tournament, the Gabonese Football Federation ("Federation Gabonaise de Football") was formed to officially oversee the development of the national team and the domestic game. The new association would not have to wait long for their first win, as in their very next match on 14 July 1962 they defeated the Congo 3–1 in their first match on home soil. They played 2 more matches in 1962, a 1–1 home draw with Cameroon on 20 August, a vast improvement over their previous meeting, and a 3–1 away defeat to the Congo on 16 September, before entering the third and final Friendship Games held in April 1963 in Dakar, Senegal. They were drawn in Group C, along with British Gambia, the France amateur team, and Upper Volta. They opened on 12 April with a strong 4–0 win over Upper Volta, but were comfortably beaten 3–0 by the French amateurs 2 days later. They drew their final game 2–2 with British Gambia on 16 April and finished 2nd in the group, a marked improvement over their previous 2 appearances at the tournament; however only the group winners progressed and therefore Gabon were eliminated. A few months later, Gabon entered qualification for the 1966 FIFA World Cup held in England. However, on 8 October 1964 they withdrew from the competition, along with all the other African entrants, in protest at FIFA's decision to only award 1 finals place to all of Africa, Asia and Oceania.


title: Gabon national football team

text: As a result of this boycott, Gabon did not play another match for over two years until August 1965, when they hosted a friendly double-header against Nigeria, drawing 2–2 on 28 August and losing 4–1 the next day. At the 35th FIFA Congress held in London, England on 6 July 1966, Gabon were officially admitted as full members of FIFA. They played their next match on 2 December 1966 when they suffered a 4–3 defeat against the Democratic Republic of the Congo, before playing them again on 4 January 1967 at home, this time winning 1–0. They played one more friendly, a 3–0 home defeat to the Ivory Coast on 28 March, before entering qualification for the 1968 Olympic football tournament, held in Mexico. In the First Round, they were drawn against Guinea with whom they drew the first leg 0–0 at home on 18 June, before being routed in the second leg 6–1, on 9 July. In 1967, they also became full members of CAF. Following on from the Olympic qualifiers, Gabon did not play another match for over two years until they travelled to Dahomey (now Benin) on 24 August 1969 to play a friendly, which they lost 1–0.


title: Gabon national football team

text: Gabon then did not play for over a year, before entering qualification for the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time. Their attempt to qualify for the 1972 tournament held in Cameroon fell at the first hurdle however, as they were drawn against Ivory Coast in the First Round. They lost the first leg at home 2–1 on 8 November 1970, and were defeated 1–0 away two weeks later. Gabon then entered qualification for the 1972 Olympic football tournament held in West Germany. In the First Round they were drawn against Cameroon. Having lost the first leg 3–2 in Libreville on 30 May 1971, Gabon forfeited the tie as they did not travel to Yaoundé to contest the return leg. Following this ignominious exit, Gabon entered qualification for the 1974 FIFA World Cup held in West Germany, and were due to play Cameroon in the First Round the Summer of 1972, however they withdrew before the matches could be played. As a result of this withdrawal, they did not play another match for over a year until they entered the football tournament at the 1972 Central African Cup (a precursor to the Central African Games) held in Brazzaville, Congo. The 5-team round robin tournament included, alongside Gabon; Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Congo, and Chad. They played their first match on 16 July against the Congo, losing 3–0. Two days later they were defeated 3–1 by the Central African Republic and on 20 July they were soundly beaten by Cameroon, 4–0. However they salvaged some pride by beating Chad 1–0 in their final match on 22 July to avoid the bottom spot. Furthermore, this tournament doubled up as a qualification group for the 1973 All-Africa Games football tournament, and as Gabon did not win the group, they failed to qualify. A year later they entered qualification for the 1974 African Cup of Nations held in Egypt, and were due to play the Central African Republic in the summer of 1973, however they once again withdrew before a ball was kicked.


title: Gabon national football team

text: As a result, Gabon did not play a single match for almost 4 years until they thrashed São Tomé and Príncipe 6–1 at home in a friendly in May 1976, which was São Tomé and Príncipe's first international match. A few weeks later Gabon hosted the inaugural Central African Games. In the football tournament, they were drawn into Group B alongside Burundi, Cameroon and Rwanda. They played their opening match on 28 June, registering a convincing 4–1 win over Burundi. Then, on 1 July they played out a 1–1 draw against Zaire who had travelled to Gabon to play each team in Group B in a friendly capacity, and had not entered the competition proper. On 5 July Gabon gained another impressive victory, beating Rwanda 3–0. In their final group game on 7 July they held neighbours Cameroon to creditable 0–0 draw, thus securing 2nd place (having only missed out on the top spot via goal difference) and qualification for the Semi-Finals. On 9 July they faced Group A winners the Congo, and were narrowly beaten 1–0. However, two days later they managed to clinch 3rd place with a 3–1 victory of the Central African Republic, to put the seal on an impressive performance in their own tournament. A year later, Gabon entered qualification for the 1978 African Cup of Nations held in Ghana. After being given a bye in the First Round, they were drawn against the Congo in the Second. They lost the first leg away 3–2 on 17 July 1977, and drew the second at home 3–3 on 31 July, losing 6–5 on aggregate. Later that year, they entered a qualification tournament for the football competition at the 1978 All-Africa Games held in Algiers, Algeria. The qualification tournament for their zone, which was held in Cameroon, consisted of 2 groups, with the top two teams in each group progressing to the Semi-Finals. In Gabon's group (B) were Burundi, the Congo and Equatorial Guinea. They beat Equatorial Guinea 2–0 in their opening match on Christmas Eve, defeated the Congo 1–0 on Boxing Day and beat Burundi 2-0 two days later. With 3 wins out of 3, they topped their group and faced Group A runners-up Chad in the Semi-Finals to whom they lost 3–1 on New Year's Eve, and therefore failed to qualify, as only the tournament winner went to the finals. A few months later in February 1978, they hosted a friendly against Nigeria, which they lost 1–0. In January 1979 they registered a 2–2 away draw against Rwanda, before defeating Ivory Coast 2–1 at home in April.


title: Gabon national football team

text: In the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, Gabon upset Cameroon 1–0 and had a good chance of progressing to the quarter-finals after a scoreless draw against Tunisia. However, Gabon lost 2–1 to Zambia as it finished in its group with a three-way tie with Zambia and Cameroon. Gabon only scored twice in the group stage and were eliminated on the goals scored tiebreaker.


title: Gabon national football team

text: In 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, Gabon co-hosted the tournament as it won their group matches: 2–0 against Niger, 3–2 against Morocco, and 1–0 against Tunisia. The second match saw Gabon qualify for its first quarter-final since 1996 in the most dramatic circumstances. Gabon had come back to lead 2–1 only for Morocco to tie the match in early stoppage time. However, on the final play of the game, Gabon scored in the eighth minute of stoppage time, from a direct free kick. Eventually, Gabon lost 5–4 in penalties (1–1 a.e.t) in the quarterfinal against Mali, after a penalty missed by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who had scored three goals in the tournament.


title: Gabon national football team

text: Gabon began its 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign in the second round in Group E as it was drawn with Niger, Burkina Faso, and Congo. Despite opening its campaign with a scoreless draw against Niger, Gabon lost 3–0 due to having fielded ineligible player Charly Moussono. After four qualifiers, Gabon scored only one goal, but thanks to an Aubameyang hat-trick on June 15, 2013, Gabon stayed in contention for a play-off berth with a 4–1 victory over Niger. However, Burkina Faso eliminated Gabon in the final qualifier with the 1–0 result as Gabon finished third in its group.


title: Gabon national football team

text: For the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, Gabon has been drawn to qualify against Togo. Even though Daniel Cousin scored in each leg against Togo, Gabon missed out on the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations as it lost 3–2 on aggregate. A year later, Gabon played six qualifiers for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations as it was drawn with Burkina Faso, Angola and Lesotho. Despite a stunning 1–1 result in Lesotho in qualifying, Gabon finished ahead of Burkina Faso to top the group as it qualified for the tournament with a game to spare in Angola. In January 2015, Gabon was drawn along with Burkina Faso, Congo and Equatorial Guinea. However, its 2–0 victory on the opening day of the tournament were all the points Gabon achieved during the tournament as it suffered a shocking exit in the group stage.


title: Gabon national football team

text: The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.


title: BMW 2 Series (F22)

text: The first generation of the coupé and convertible range of the BMW 2 Series subcompact executive car consists of the BMW 2 Series (F22) for the coupé version and BMW 2 Series (F23) for the convertible version. The F22/F23 has been in production since November 2013 and is often collectively referred to as the F22.


title: BMW 2 Series (F22)

text: The F22 was released as the successor to the E82 1 Series coupé and E88 1 Series convertible. It is currently produced in Leipzig, previously alongside the F20 1 Series hatchback range.


title: BMW 2 Series (F22)

text: The high performance F87 M2 model is produced in the coupe body style. It is powered by the BMW N55 and BMW S55 turbocharged inline-six engines.


title: BMW 2 Series (F22)

text: The United States is the most popular market for the 2 Series, accounting for one-third of all sales, followed by Germany and Great Britain.


title: BMW 2 Series (F22)

text: The coupé model premiered at the 2014 North American International Auto Show, with sales beginning in March 2014. The convertible model premiered later in October at the 2014 Paris Motor Show, and launched in February 2015. The exterior design was led by Christopher Weil.


title: BMW 2 Series (F22)

text: The F22 2 Series has a 50:50 weight distribution and features a MacPherson strut front suspension and a five-link rear suspension. Compared to the E82 1 Series coupé, the F22 2 Series is longer, wider, and lower. The 2 Series also has more front headroom and more rear legroom, and has an additional trunk space at . The 2 Series has a reduced drag coefficient of 0.29 for the 220i Coupé.


title: BMW 2 Series (F22)

text: Convertible models feature an 20% increase in rigidity compared to the E88 1 Series convertible and feature an electric convertible top that can be raised or lowered in 20 seconds, at speeds up to .


title: BMW 2 Series (F22)

text: Standard equipment includes automatic climate control, iDrive with a 6.5-inch display, and 60:40 split folding rear seats. The 2 Series is available in Sport Line, Modern Line, and M Sport trim. Sport line models feature gloss black exterior trim while Modern line models feature aluminium exterior trim. M Sport models feature a lower suspension, sport seats, and M exterior styling.


title: BMW 2 Series (F22)

text: 218-230 with the M Sport trim and M235-240 models can be fitted with M Performance Parts. These include a splitter, side skirts, lip spoiler and diffuser.


title: BMW 2 Series (F22)

text: Optional equipment includes automatic parking, traffic sign recognition, a Harman Kardon HiFi system, and Apple CarPlay. Models are also available with iDrive Professional Navigation which features a larger 8.8-inch display with a built-in SIM card with LTE support, allowing for automatic over-the-air updates for live traffic information and on-street parking information.


title: BMW 2 Series (F22)

text: In November 2015, BMW unveiled their high performance version of the 2 Series, the M2, with sales beginning in 2016 and only being available as a 2-door coupe. The Competition replaced the standard car in 2018 with the CS being revealed in November 2019 and sales beginning in March 2020, with 2,200 units planned.


title: BMW 2 Series (F22)

text: For 2015 BMW sold the M235i Track Edition as a limited production model in certain markets. In Canada it was limited to 50 units. It came with the same N55B30 engine as the standard M235i, but was equipped with a limited-slip differential, M Performance suspension, and M Performance exhaust, while power seat motors and the sunroof were eliminated to save weight. Other changes included special wheels, carbon mirror caps, a trunk lip spoiler, and a full M Performance aerodynamics package.


title: BMW 2 Series (F22)

text: BMW does not break down sales between 2 series variants such as the F22, F23, F87, F45, and F46. The F45 and F46 make up the majority of 2 series sales globally.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Big Boy Restaurant Group, LLC is an American restaurant chain headquartered in Warren, Michigan. Frisch's Big Boy Restaurants is a restaurant chain with its headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Big Boy name, design aesthetic, and menu were previously licensed to a number of regional franchisees.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Big Boy began as Bob's Pantry in 1936 by Bob Wian in Glendale, California. The restaurants became known as "Bob's", "Bob's Drive-Ins", "Bob's, Home of the Big Boy Hamburger", and (commonly as) Bob's Big Boy. It became a local chain under that name and nationally under the Big Boy name, franchised by Robert C. Wian Enterprises. Marriott Corporation bought Big Boy in 1967. One of the larger franchise operators, Elias Brothers, purchased the chain from Marriott in 1987, moved the headquarters of the company to Warren, Michigan, and operated it until bankruptcy was declared in 2000. During the bankruptcy, the chain was sold to investor Robert Liggett, Jr., who took over as Chairman, renamed the company Big Boy Restaurants International and maintained the headquarters in Warren. In 2018, Big Boy was sold to a group of Michigan investors and renamed Big Boy Restaurant Group, with David Crawford as Chairman, CEO, and co-owner of the new company. The company is the operator or franchisor for 66 Big Boy restaurants in the United States and two in Thailand. In January 2020, Tamer Afr replaced Crawford as chairman, CEO, and co-owner.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Immediately after Liggett's purchase, Big Boy Restaurants International—then known as Liggett Restaurant Enterprises—negotiated an agreement with the other large franchise operator, Frisch's Restaurants. The Big Boy trademarks in Kentucky, Indiana, and most of Ohio and Tennessee transferred to Frisch's ownership; all other Frisch's territories transferred to Liggett. Thus Frisch's is no longer a franchisee, but Big Boy Restaurant Group and Frisch's are now independent co-registrants of the Big Boy name and trademark. Frisch's operates or franchises 84 Big Boy restaurants in the United States.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: The chain is best known for its trademark chubby boy with a pompadour hairstyle wearing red-and-white checkered overalls holding a Big Boy sandwich (double-decker cheeseburger). The inspiration for Big Boy's name, as well as the model for its mascot, was Richard Woodruff of Glendale, California. When he was six years old, Woodruff walked into the diner Bob's Pantry as Bob Wian was attempting to name his new hamburger. Wian said, "Hello, Big Boy" to Woodruff, and the name stuck. Warner Bros. animation artist Ben Washam sketched Richard's caricature, which became the character seen on the company trademark.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: In 1955, Bob Wian hired Manfred Bernhard, son of graphic designer Lucian Bernhard, to create a new public image for Big Boy. Bernhard was not impressed with Washam's mascot, saying it was sloppy and had a moronic expression. The "West Coast Big Boy" mascot was revised, fiberglass statues molded, schemes created for menus and building designs, and a comic book for children launched.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: In 1951, Bob Wian's original franchisee Dave Frisch developed a slightly different Big Boy character. He was slimmer, wore a side cap, saddle shoes and striped overalls. Having reddish or blonde hair he was portrayed in a running pose. Known as the "East Coast Big Boy", he was copyrighted by Frisch's and used for statues and comic books for Frisch's, and its subfranchisees Manners and Azar's. Before 1954, Parkette (Shoney's) used both versions, though never together. Since 1956, the Wian "West Coast Big Boy" design was used exclusively by all franchisees other than Frisch's, Manners and Azar's. In the late 1960s, both characters were redrawn to appear similar, incorporating the checkered outfit, pompadour and hamburger above the raised arm from the West Coast design, and the running pose and direction of the East Coast design. In the 1980s, the hamburger was removed from the West Coast design; representing a de-emphasis of the hamburger in North American Big Boy restaurants, it also accommodated the Japanese Big Boy restaurants, which do not serve hamburgers on a bun.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Early versions of the West Coast Big Boy statues were gigantic, measuring up to 16 feet tall with later versions as short as 4 feet. The early statues always included the Big Boy hamburger above mascot's raised right arm; much later versions eliminated the hamburger with both arms clutching the suspenders instead. The hamburger remained a part of the Frisch's East Coast statues, though the slingshot was eliminated from the figure's back pocket. Although still used by that chain, some Frisch's restaurants currently display the West Coast statue instead.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Occasionally Big Boy statues have come into conflict with local zoning ordinances. In 2002, Tony Matar, a Big Boy franchisee in Canton, Michigan was cited in violation of local sign ordinances. The town claimed the statue was a prohibited second sign; Matar asserted that the 7 foot statue was a sculpture, not a sign. A 2004 compromise allows the existing statue to remain with the words "Big Boy" removed from the figure's bib. When a Brighton, Michigan franchise closed in early 2015 for financial reasons, zoning codes caused the entire sign—topped with a rotating Big Boy statue—be taken down before the restaurant could be reopened. In contrast the planning commission in Norco, California—known as "Horsetown USA"—was concerned that the statue was not western enough. In response, the restaurant's Big Boy statue is now outfitted wearing a cowboy hat and boots.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: A few other modified statues are in official use. In Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park, a Frisch's statue is painted wearing a 1970s Reds baseball uniform with a Reds ball cap added. Frisch's Big Boy hamburgers are sold at two of the park's concession booths. Rather than modifying a typical statue, the Big Boy restaurants in Manistique and St. Ignace, Michigan display full scale moose statues dressed in checkered overalls with "Big Boy" printed across the chest. To conform with Gaylord, Michigan's Alpine theme, the local restaurant's statue previously wore a green Tyrolean hat. (The restaurant was rebuilt in 2016, and no longer displays the modified statue.)


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: In March 2017, Frisch's unveiled a restyled statue. The new statue resembles the West Coast design but wears striped overalls like the original East Coast Big Boy. The debut statue wearing a Reds uniform is placed near the existing statue at Great American Ball Park; another is planned for an unnamed Frisch's restaurant. Frisch's will gradually swap the new statues for existing restaurant statues in need of repair.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Because of the closing or separation of former Big Boy restaurants, many West Coast statues were acquired by private individuals, often traded through eBay. Smaller versions of the statues are sold as coin banks and bobblehead figures. The three dimensional Big Boy figure was also used on early ash trays, salt and pepper shakers, wooden counter displays and as small unpainted pewter models.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Gigantic air inflatable Big Boy figures are available and typically used for restaurant openings and special promotions, where permitted.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: "Adventures of the Big Boy" (initially "The Adventures of Big Boy") was a promotional comic book given free to children visiting the restaurants. Intended to "give the kids something to do while they waited for their food", the book involves the escapades of Big Boy, his girlfriend Dolly and dog Nugget. From the comic books children could also join the Big Boy Club, a kids' club offering them free Big Boy hamburgers, decoder cards, pin-back buttons and other premiums. The serial – sometimes called "King of the Giveaways" – once had distribution estimated at three million copies.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Manfred Bernhard commissioned Timely Comics to produce the book. In the first year, "Adventures of the Big Boy" was managed by Sol Brodsky, written by Stan Lee and drawn by Bill Everett, Brodsky, and Dan DeCarlo. DeCarlo continued drawing in the second year and Lee writing the series through 1961. For 17 years, starting in the mid 1970s, Manny Stallman drew the (Marriott) series, followed by Bob Bindig who drew the series until 1995.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Because of the distinct East and West Coast Big Boy mascots, dual versions of "Adventures" were produced, identical except for the detail of the Big Boy figure. In July 1969, the versions merged, and a fluffy brown haired Big Boy appeared. In 1976, Shoney's began publishing their own series instead. Contracted to Paragon Products, this version featured an older, leaner Big Boy, with his siblings Katie and Tripp replacing Dolly and Nugget, and was adopted by the JB's and Azar's Big Boy franchises. After 75 issues, it became "Shoney's Fun and Adventure Magazine" introducing a Shoney's mascot ("Uncle Ed" bear) in place of Big Boy, allowing it to serve Shoney's non-Big Boy restaurants.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: In 1996, after 39 years and 466 issues, Big Boy cancelled the comic book and hired Craig Yoe's Yoe! Studio to revamp the characters and produce a magazine styled replacement. After 63 issues, the "Big Boy Magazine" was itself cancelled in 2008.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: The novel hamburger started as a joke. In February 1937, some local big band musicians, who were regular customers of Bob's Pantry, visited the restaurant. When ordering, bass player Stewie Strange asked, "How about something different, something "special"?" [emphasis added]. Bob Wian improvised, creating the first (then unnamed) Big Boy, intending the thing "look ridiculous, like a leaning tower". Demand for "the special" soared but Wian sought a "snappy" name, which became Big Boy. In 1938, the Big Boy hamburger cost 15¢ (). In 2018, the Big Boy cost $6.49 in Michigan.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Several slogans were used from the 1950s through the 1970s to promote the Big Boy hamburger, such as, "A Meal in One on a Double–Deck Bun" and "Twice as Big, Twice as Good". On menus from that period, it was called, "...the Nationally Famous, Original Double–Deck Hamburger...".


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: The Big Boy hamburger inspired and was the model for other double deck hamburgers. This includes McDonald's Big Mac, Burger Chef's Big Shef and Burger King's Big King.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: The Big Boy consists of two thin beef patties placed on a three-layer bun with lettuce, a single slice of American cheese, and either mayonnaise and red relish (a combination of sweet pickle relish, ketchup and chili sauce), Big Boy special sauce (often called thousand island dressing) or (at Frisch's, Manners and Azar's) tartar sauce on one or each slice of bun. (Regardless, the Big Boy condiment used was often simply referred to as "special sauce" on menus chainwide.) Wian used a sesame seed bun while Frisch's used a plain bun and included pickles. The Big Boy hamburger originally called for a quarter pound (4 ounces) of fresh ground beef, but later, franchisees were permitted to use frozen beef patties, and the minimum content reduced to a fifth of a pound to offset increasing food costs. Other specifications were exacting, such as the bun's bottom section being 1½  inches high and the center section ¾ inches, and 1½  ounces of shredded lettuce used.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Originally, the Big Boy hamburger was the only common menu item "required" of all Big Boy franchisees.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Just as Bob Wian's Big Boy hamburger was served by all franchises, the early franchises also contributed signature menu items. Frisch's provided the "Brawny Lad" and "Swiss Miss" hamburgers, Shoney's contributed the "Slim Jim" sandwich and Hot Fudge Ice Cream Cake, while Strawberry Pie was introduced by Eat'n Park. Hot Fudge Cake and Strawberry Pie remain popular dessert items chainwide but other items were not necessarily offered by all franchises, and franchises would sometimes change the item's name: The "Slim Jim" became the "Buddie Boy" at Frisch's, and Elby's renamed the "Swiss Miss" as the "Brawny Swiss". Similarly, when franchisees left Big Boy, they would typically rebrand the Big Boy hamburger: it became the "Superburger" (Eat'n Park), the "Buddy Boy" (Lendy's), the "Big Ben" (Franklin's), and the "Elby Double Deck hamburger" (Elby's). Shoney's reintroduced the "Classic Double Decker", somewhat different than the Big Boy, about a decade after leaving.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Bob Wian developed rules and philosophies about how Big Boy should operate. Besides the (construction of the) Big Boy hamburger he attributed most of his success and that of his franchisees to following these rules. His fundamental restaurant principles were: "serve the best quality food, at moderate prices, in spotless surroundings, with courtesy and hospitality." He believed "the customer is always right" and instructed employees that, "if any food item is not satisfactory, return it cheerfully and apologize for the error". Wian said he had five basic rules for building his business: "be a good place to work for, sell to, buy from, and invest in. And be a good neighbor in the community." He also attributed the growth to, "capable management and a conservative policy of not trying to seat more people than can be served or opening more restaurants than can be serviced." If some disruption occurred at a restaurant, such as a new manager or renovation, Wian would postpone advertising until operations would return to his standards.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Typical of Big Boy restaurants, Elby's Big Boy used a nine-step process waiting on dining room customers:


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Bob Wian was discerning of employees, hiring wait staff—which he considered a profession—by appearance, intelligence and enthusiasm. He preferred employees with little or no restaurant experience which afforded training in the Big Boy tradition. Wian said that he "conned [employees] into believing in themselves ... I put my cooks in chef's outfits, even though they couldn't boil an egg". Other than wait staff, employees typically started as dishwashers and busboys, and advanced to short-order cooks, and then possibly to management. Bob's Big Boy was one of the first restaurant chains to offer health insurance and profit-sharing to employees.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Bob Wian excelled at franchise relations. He led 20-person training crews to open new Big Boy restaurants, made periodic nationwide tours of the franchises, was available for consultations and claimed to know every manager's name. He also assembled the principal franchisees as board members of the National Big Boy Association to participate in leadership. After Wian left, some Big Boy operators began to question the value of their franchise.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: In addition to the Big Boy name, the "Big Boy" concept, menu, and mascot were originally licensed to a wide number of regional franchise holders (listed in the next section). Because many of the early franchisees were already in the restaurant business when joining Big Boy, "Big Boy" was added to the franchisee name just as the Big Boy hamburger was added to the franchisee's menu. In this sense it is confusing when referring to a chain, as each named franchisee was itself a chain and Big Boy could be considered a chain of chains. People tend to know Big Boy not simply as Big Boy but as the franchise from where they lived such as Bob's Big Boy in California, Shoney's Big Boy in the south or Frisch's Big Boy in much of Ohio, Marc's Big Boy in the Upper Midwest, Elias Brothers' Big Boy (or sometimes just Elias Brothers') in Michigan, among the many others.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Each regional franchisee typically operated a central commissary which prepared or processed foods and sauces to be shipped fresh to their restaurants. However, some items might be prepared at the restaurants daily, such as soups and breading of seafood and onion rings.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Through the 1950s and 1960s, the emphasis changed from drive-in restaurant to coffee shop and family restaurant. New franchisees without existing restaurants signed on. A larger standard menu was developed. Most adopted a common graphic design of menus and promotional items, offered by Big Boy but personalized to the franchise. Stock plans of restaurant designs were provided by Los Angeles architects Armet and Davis or Chicago architectural designer Robert O. Burton, and modified as needed.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: In the 1960s, Big Boy and other drive-in restaurants could not compete with the spreading fast food restaurants such as McDonald's and Burger King. Big Boy built its last drive-in in 1964 and by 1976, only 5 of the chain's 930 restaurants offered curb service. Big Boy redefined itself as a full service restaurant in contrast to fast food. Nonetheless, in the late 1960s and 1970s, Bob's, Shoney's and JB's also opened Big Boy Jr. stores, designed as fast food operations which offered a limited menu. Sometimes called drive-ins, these junior stores did not use carhops. In 1993, Marc's Big Boy similarly developed Big Boy Express stores using dual drive-thrus and no interior dining area. Two Express stores were built, offered for sale a year later and closed in 1995.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Several franchises also held Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises and sold that chicken in their Big Boy restaurants; these included Marc's, McDowell's, Lendy's and one or more Shoney's subfranchises. The practice was discouraged and Big Boy eventually provided a similar scheme of selling buckets of take out chicken, marketed as Country Style or Country Cousin Chicken. Franchises who resisted the change were forced to remove Kentucky Fried Chicken menu items and physically relocate those operations. However, Marriott sold "Pappy Parker Fried Chicken" in Bob's Big Boys; the Marriott owned brand was also sold in the company's Hot Shoppes and Roy Rogers Restaurants, and later Marriott Hotel Restaurants.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Big Boy's origins as a drive-in restaurant, required a much smaller investment to open and much lower costs to operate: a small building having no dining room or limited counter space. Thus persons of modest assets could become Big Boy operators. It was the profits from these operations which allowed not only additional drive-ins, but operators to build modern restaurants with large pleasant dining rooms. Many of the early successful franchisees would probably not have assets (converted to present value) sufficient to join Big Boy today.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: By 1979, there were more than a thousand Big Boy restaurants in the U.S. and Canada, and about 20 franchisees. Shoney's, Elias Brothers and Frisch's—charter franchisees—controlled the vast majority. These mega franchisees paid practically no fees, e.g., Frisch paid $1 per year for its core four state territory. After Bob's, the four original franchisees (in order) were Frisch's, Eat'n Park, Shoney's (originally called "Parkette") and Elias Brothers, all clustered near the state of Ohio. All, including Bob's, remain in operation today, albeit Elias Brothers is simply known as Big Boy, and Eat'n Park and Shoney's dropped Big Boy affiliation in the 1970s and 1980s.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Big Boy developed named franchisees in several ways. Very quickly the Big Boy name and even the Big Boy character were being widely used without permission. Bob Wian, needing Big Boy restaurants operating in multiple states to maintain national (U.S.) trademark protection, offered very generous franchise agreements to Frisch's, Eat'n Park and Parkette (Shoney's). In 1952, Wian instituted a formal franchise process and Elias Brothers became the first such "official" franchisee paying Wian 1% of sales. Bob Wian also settled trademark infringements allowing the rogue operator to become a licensed franchisee, such as McDowell's Big Boy in North Dakota. Franchisees were permitted to subfranchise; these early subfranchisees often used their own name and operated independently: Frisch's licensed Azar's, and Manners; Shoney's licensed Adler's, Arnold's, Becker's, Elby's, Lendy's, Shap's, Tune's, and Yoda's. (An eastern Pennsylvania Elby's franchisee briefly operated as Franklin's Big Boy before dropping Big Boy.)


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Acquisitions and mergers also occurred. In the early 1970s, Frisch's acquired Kip's Big Boy; JB's acquired Vip's, Kebo's, Leo's and Bud's which were rebranded JB's. Shoney's acquired the Missouri territory previously assigned to Tote's. After buying Big Boy, Elias Brothers bought Elby's and TJ's. Elby's was unique in leaving and rejoining the Big Boy system. When Marriott purchased Big Boy (Wian Enterprises) in 1967, this included Bob's Big Boy. The name "Bob's" would be used by all Marriott owned Big Boys and became common in parts of the eastern U.S. and elsewhere, far away from Bob's historic territory.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Frisch's now owns the "Big Boy" name in a defined four-state region and its franchisee Azar's closed in 2020. Bob's is licensed Big Boy Restaurant Group. Many of the other former franchise owners (Shoney's, particularly) have expanded into the former territories of other franchise holders.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: After buying the Big Boy system from Marriott, Elias Brothers planned to phase out franchise names, only generally realized by Big Boy Restaurants International after 2000. This was intended to strengthen the trademark but also prevent defections, such as happened with Shoney's Big Boy retaining identity as Shoney's. The same occurred with Eat'n Park, Elby's, Lendy's, JB's, and Abdow's who kept their names after leaving Big Boy. Big Boy now permits operators to informally identify by location such as "Tawas Bay Big Boy" in East Tawas, Michigan.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Unlike most modern franchises, the historic Big Boy franchisees differed somewhat from one another in pricing and menus. After purchasing Big Boy in 1987, Elias Brothers intended to standardize the name and menu, but Bob's, Frisch's and McDowell's (now known as Bismarck Big Boy) continue to offer distinctions from the standard Big Boy menu.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Big Boy Restaurant Group and Frisch's Big Boy Restaurants both continue to offer franchises in their exclusive territories, each having 20 year terms. As of 2014, Big Boy Restaurant Group charged a $40,000 franchise fee, and an ongoing 4% royalty and up to 3% advertising fees based on weekly gross revenue. (In most of Michigan the franchisee pays a 2% advertising fee and must spend an additional 1% on local advertising. Franchisees in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan or outside of Michigan pay a ½% advertising fee and must spend 1½% on local advertising.) As of 2020, Frisch's Big Boy charges a $40,000–$45,000 franchise fee, and an ongoing 4% royalty and 2½% advertising fees on gross revenue. The majority of Big Boy Restaurant Group units are franchised while the majority of Frisch's units are currently company owned. Big Boy Restaurant Group franchise agreements are not renewable but new agreements are required.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Big Boy restaurants were cobranded with at least 34 different names representing various franchisees. These franchisees are listed below with territories, time span, founders, comic book code (in brackets) and additional notes, as known:


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Mady's Big Boy of Windsor, Ontario, was "not" a franchisee, though sometimes identified as one and using a similar looking mascot. In 1965 Bob Wian sued Mady's for trademark infringement but failed because (his) Big Boy was judged not widely known in Canada. The case is considered important in Canadian and international trademark law. In 1973 Elias Brothers bought Mady's and established an Elias Big Boy on Mady's original site. John Bitove, Sr. owned the rights to Big Boy for the remainder of Canada, which he sold to Elias Brothers in 1979. During the mid to late 1980's there was one in Nassau, Bahamas.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Big Boy also operated (or planned to open) restaurants in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Brazil, the Philippines and Thailand.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Outside of North America, Big Boy Japan owns and operates 274 Big Boy Hamburger Steak & Grill Restaurants in Japan. Founded in 1977, Big Boy Japan now also operates 45 Victoria Station restaurants in Japan and is a subsidiary of Zénsho Holdings Co., Ltd. The Japanese Big Boy Restaurants do not offer the Big Boy hamburger or most other American Big Boy menu items, offering a distinct menu instead. They also offer beer and wine. Zensho had purchased Big Boy Japan from the ailing Daiei in 2002 for 8.65 billion yen. Like Frisch, Big Boy Japan operates independently of the Big Boy Restaurant Group.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: In 2019, Singapore-based Destination Eats signed a franchise agreement with the Big Boy Restaurant Group to initially open restaurants in Thailand, and later in Australia, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, and the Philippines. In May 2020, the first Thai Big Boy restaurant opened in Bangkok, operated as a delivery only service due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A second restaurant was opened in Pattaya in October 2020. The company is obligated to open 70 restaurants in its overall territory.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: A previous franchise briefly operated at the beginning of the 21st century with three Big Boy restaurants in Bangkok and one in the southern beach town of Pattaya, but the business ultimately failed because the native Thai customers did not understand nor appreciate American-style food at that time. The restaurants adapted the menu to local tastes. Some Thai customers regarded the Big Boy statues as religious icons or had superstitions about them.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: The previous Michigan-based owner of the Big Boy chain, which chiefly franchised previous Elias Brothers Big Boy restaurants in Michigan, has suffered a gradual loss of franchised restaurants. About 175 Big Boys existed in July 2006, compared to 76 in July 2019.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: On April 16, 2017, the last Big Boy restaurant in the city of Detroit closed. The Big Boy in Fenton, Michigan, was expected to close in 2017. Both properties have been sold to developers. Likewise, in 2016, the Jackson, Michigan, Big Boy closed after the site was purchased by a developer.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Other franchisees simply left the Big Boy chain. In April 2017, the Danville Big Boy, the only unit in Illinois, dropped Big Boy and rebranded as the Border Cafe. In 2016 both the Ann Arbor, Michigan, restaurant (on North Zeeb Road) and the restaurant in Houghton Lake, Michigan continued to operate but not as Big Boy restaurants. The Tecumseh and Alma, Michigan restaurants announced they will allow their franchise agreements to expire on November 1, 2017 and early 2018, respectively, and both will continue to operate independently. The Marine City, Michigan Big Boy closed in February 2018, to reopen independently by a new owner. However, in the same month, Big Boy added a new franchisee, an existing restaurant reopening as a Big Boy, in Woodhaven, Michigan. In April 2018, the Coldwater, Michigan location closed, media sources noting multiple health code violations and poor customer reviews.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: In August 2020, a partnership was announced with Terrible Herbst to expand into Southern Nevada. On November 8, 2020, the first Big Boy restaurant opened in Indian Springs, Nevada. A second Big Boy opened in May 2022 in the Centennial Hills neighborhood of Las Vegas; called Big Boy Tavern, it includes a bar and small casino area. In June 2021, it was reported that a Big Boy restaurant will open on July 14, 2021 in Germantown, Wisconsin, a Milwaukee suburb. The franchisees will also operate two Big Boy food trucks and plan to open additional Big Boy restaurants in southeastern Wisconsin over a three year period. The grand opening was pushed back to July 21 due to equipment shipping delays.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: Big Boy Restaurants International tried a new fast casual concept known as Big Boy's Burgers and Shakes. The restaurant opened in 2016 in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, operated in strip mall instead of a larger traditional stand-alone building. The restaurant was closed by January 2020.


title: Big Boy Restaurants

text: In November 2020, the Big Boy restaurant in Sandusky, Michigan was stripped of its franchise when it refused to comply with Michigan's COVID-19 restrictions. It now operates as Sandusky Family Diner.


title: Varisu

text: Varisu () is an upcoming Indian Tamil-language action family drama film directed by Vamshi Paidipally who wrote it with Hari and Ashishor Solomon. Produced by Dil Raju, Sirish under Sri Venkateswara Creations and PVP Cinema. The film stars Vijay and Rashmika Mandanna. The music is composed by Thaman S, cinematography is handled by Karthik Palani and editing by Praveen K. L..


title: Varisu

text: Principal photography began in April 2022 in Chennai. The film is scheduled to be released in theatres on 12 January 2023 during Pongal.


title: Varisu

text: On 26 September 2021, Vijay's 66th film as lead actor was announced with the working title "Thalapathy 66". Directed by Vamshi Paidipally, it is the first Tamil film produced by Dil Raju and Sirish under Sri Venkateswara Creations, and Paidipally's second Tamil film after "Thozha" (2016). Paidipally said the makers initially intended to announce the project early that year, but had to postpone their plans due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Vijay was reported to receive a payment of for the film. He was also reported to be sporting two looks as the film would be set in two different time periods.


title: Varisu

text: Paidipally wrote the story and screenplay along with Hari and Ashishor Solomon. Raju Murugan was signed as the dialogue writer but he opted out of the project due to other film commitments. Murugan was replaced by Vivek for additional screenplay and dialogues. Cinematographer Karthik Palani, editor Praveen K. L. and production designers Sunil Babu and Vaishnavi Reddy, were part of the film's technical crew. Dil Raju described the film as "family-centric" like most of Vijay's films from the 1990s. While several reports anticipated the film to be a Tamil-Telugu bilingual, the makers clarified that the film would be shot only in Tamil. The title "Varisu" was announced on 21 June 2022, the eve of Vijay's 48th birthday.


title: Varisu

text: The story for the film was written keeping Mahesh Babu in mind and when the actor could not sign up for the film, the makers approached Allu Arjun, Prabhas and Ram Charan before finalising Vijay. In October 2021, Prakash Raj was reported to play a key role in the film, collaborating with Vijay after over a decade since "Villu" (2009). On 5 April 2022, the birthday of Rashmika Mandanna, it was announced that she would be the lead actress. It is her second Tamil film after "Sulthan" (2021). The makers initially wanted Pooja Hegde to be the lead actress, but ultimately decided against including her since she had previously appeared in and was doing "back-to-back films with superstars", including "Beast" (2022) with Vijay. R. Sarathkumar joined the cast the day after Mandanna's announcement.


title: Varisu

text: On 26 April 2022, Shaam confirmed being a part of the film. On 3 May, Yogi Babu confirmed being a part of the film. Five days later, the production house confirmed Prabhu and Jayasudha as part of the cast, and two days later, Telugu actor Srikanth, Sangeetha Krish and Samyuktha Shanmughanathan. In early June, a photograph of Khushbu on the sets was leaked. Though she initially denied being part of the cast, her presence was confirmed on 26 October. On 23 August, Ganesh Venkatraman confirmed his presence in the film. In September, Sriman was confirmed to be a part of the film.


title: Varisu

text: The inaugural puja ceremony for the film's shooting was held on 6 April 2022 in Chennai, and was followed by filming of the first schedule. It took place at a specially constructed set at a film city in East Coast Road, Chennai and was completed on 15 April. Initially, 75% of the shoot was planned to take place in Hyderabad but Vijay requested the production to remain in Chennai to benefit the local FEFSI members, and the makers reportedly agreed. Despite this, the Hyderabad schedule began on 3 May, and concluded by 23 May. The Chennai schedule resumed on 3 June, with the recurring portions also being shot at the film city. This includes a song sequence and few talkie portions. Despite stringent measures taken by the production team, pictures taken from the sets were leaked onto the internet and by 15 June, the team planned to shift the shooting location to a private spot, resulting in the halt of filming. By 23 June 45% of filming was over, with another schedule to begin in July. The fourth schedule began on 5 July in Hyderabad, and completed within three weeks.


title: Varisu

text: The team headed to Visakhapatnam for the fifth schedule in late-July; Paidipally planned to shoot the film in live locations in the city, and the details of the venue were undisclosed, in order to avoid fans gathering. Despite the Telugu Film Producers Guild's (TFPG) decision to halt shootings of Telugu films from 1 August 2022, Dil Raju, the head of TFPG, assured that the shooting of "Varisu" would continue as it was a Tamil-language film and not a bilingual. During the production in Hyderabad, several stills from the film were leaked, and fans criticised the carelessness of the production house. In mid-August 2022, a song shoot was held featuring Vijay and Mandanna, and is choreographed by Jani Master. The team moved to Hyderabad for filming another song, with the lead pair and choreographer in September.


title: Varisu

text: The final schedule commenced on 25 September, with two fight sequences and two songs left to be shot in this schedule. The filming was completed on 27 October 2022, except for patchwork sequences and a final song, which was shot from 14 to 19 November in Bellary. It was followed by the ongoing shooting of the climax sequences in Hyderabad, taking place for nearly 10 days. During the schedule, a reporter and his team flew drone camera over the shooting location, but was seized by the fans, preventing the reporter to get footage from the sets. Post-production for the film went simultaneously in mid-November, and full-fledged post-production works would begin by December, once filming is wrapped. The technical team also travelled to Ladakh to capture montage sequences.


title: Varisu

text: In his first collaboration with Vijay, the music is composed by Thaman S. The album consists of six songs. The first single "Ranjithame" was released on 5 November 2022. The second single titled "Thee Thalapathy", sung by Silambarasan was released on 4 December 2022. The third single "Soul of Varisu" sung by K. S. Chithra was released on 20 December 2022.


title: Varisu

text: "Varisu" is scheduled to be released in theatres on 12 January 2023 in the week of Pongal. The film is planned to have dubbed versions in Telugu (titled "Vaarasudu") and in Hindi. The Telugu version's release was initially in risk of being moved to an earlier date than the Tamil version as the Telugu Film Producers Council urged theatre owners to give first preference to release only direct Telugu films releasing on 12 January 2023 in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana during the Pongal festival. Despite this, the Tamil Nadu Film Producers Association announced that the Telugu version would release as planned after talks with the Telugu Film Producers Council.


title: Varisu

text: The film will be distributed by Seven Screen Studio in most of Tamil Nadu, while Red Giant Movies will distribute the film in North Arcot, South Arcot, Chennai, Coimbatore and Chengalpet. Ahimsa Entertainment will be releasing the film in Tamil and Telugu in the United Kingdom. 4 Seasons Creations acquired the rights for distributing the film in European countries such as France, Norway and Netherlands. DMY Creations bought the distribution rights for Malaysia.


title: Varisu

text: Sri Venkateswara Creations was accused by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) of using elephants in the film, violating the Performing Animal (Registration) Rules 2001 by not seeking permission from the AWBI before filming. The AWBI ordered Sri Venkateswara Creations to submit an explanation to them for their violation within seven days, or face legal action.


title: AND1

text: AND1 is an American footwear and clothing company specializing in basketball shoes, clothing, and sporting goods. AND1 was founded on August 13, 1993. The company focuses strictly on basketball and is a subsidiary of Sequential Brands Group. It sponsors NBA athletes, as well as numerous high school and AAU teams in the United States.


title: AND1

text: In 1993, AND1 began as a graduate school project partnership of Jay Coen Gilbert, Seth Berger, and Tom Austin while they were graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. The company name is derived from a phrase used by basketball broadcasters to denote a free throw awarded to a player against whom a foul has been committed while scoring a goal.


title: AND1

text: The brand started by selling T-shirts out of the back of a car. Early advertising strategies included other basketball slogans and trash talk, such as "Pass. Save Yourself The Embarrassment". They marketed their shirts to street basketball players. Foot Locker began to sell the shirts, and within the second year of launching, the business reached 1,500 stores across America.


title: AND1

text: In mid of 1996, NBA star Stephon Marbury became the first spokesman for AND1. With Marbury's signing, AND1 launched its first pair of basketball sneakers, its entry into the footwear category.


title: AND1

text: In late 1998, a videotape containing streetball stunts was delivered to AND1 by Marquise Kelly, coach of the Benjamin Cardozo High school team in Queens, New York. The tape contained low quality camera moves, poor resolution and nearly indecipherable audio featuring a streetballer by the name of Rafer Alston. At the time, Alston was a student at Fresno State who had entered the 1998 NBA Draft. The videotape would soon be known as the "Skip tape", referring to Alston's streetball nickname "Skip to my Lou". Alston later signed on with AND1.


title: AND1

text: In 1999 at Haverford College in Philadelphia, AND1 shot their first series of commercials and print ads incorporating NBA players Darrell Armstrong, Rex Chapman, Ab Osondu, Raef LaFrentz, Toby Bailey, and Miles Simon. When the traditional marketing campaign proved unsuccessful, a strategy was formed to use the "Skip tape". It was edited and reprinted into 50,000 copies, and over the next eight weeks, distributed across basketball camps, clinics, record labels. The tape would become the first "Mix Tape", and quickly made Alston into a celebrity. When AND1 became a product partner with FootAction, this strategy evolved into a national program.


title: AND1

text: Starting in the summer of 1999, a free AND1 Mix Tape was given with any purchase. Approximately 200,000 tapes were distributed in the span of 3 weeks.


title: AND1

text: AND1 began to recruit more and more NBA players to wear their product, including Latrell Sprewell, Kevin Garnett and Jamal Crawford. AND1 products began appearing at Foot Locker and FootAction. By the 2001 season, AND1 was second only to Nike in market share among NBA endorsees. They later became the second-largest basketball brand in the United States only eight years after their inception.


title: AND1

text: AND1 summer tours, having begun in 1999, were expanded in 2002 into the Mixtape Tour with the release of Mixtape 3. Noted streetballers such as “Hot Sauce” and “The Professor” would go from court to court to challenge other streetballers in one-on-ones. The streetballers who prevailed through the very end of the summer tours would receive endorsement deals from AND1. From 2002 through 2008, the tours were televised live on ESPN under the name “Streetball” and competed with ESPN's “SportsCenter” for the highest ratings. The summer tours began in America but soon branched into more than 30 countries, with their products promoted in 130 countries and territories.


title: AND1

text: AND1 apparel and footwear had first appeared in the digital arena in "Street Hoops" in 2002, but in 2006 the brand officially made its entrance into the category, partnering with Ubisoft to release its first video game, "AND 1 Streetball". A mobile version was also released by Gameloft. The game featured a story mode mirroring AND1's "Streetball" series on ESPN, where players were able to create their own basketball player and enter him in the AND 1 Mix Tape Tour in order to get a contract with the AND 1 team. Along the way, players were able to create their own stylized trick moves and pull them off with a two-analog stick system called "I BALL". The games were available on both PlayStation 2 and Xbox and received positive reviews.


title: AND1

text: Following a short hiatus, the AND1 Mixtape Tour returned in 2010, then known as the AND1 Live Streetball Tour. The tour continued to expand globally as the AND1 team toured the world, meeting success against most international teams and scoring wins over adversaries as diverse as Chile and Angola. They remained undefeated outside the continental United States until they lost to the debuting Puerto Rico Streetballers in 2012.


title: AND1

text: Over the years, AND1 has changed hands a few times, first being bought out by American Sporting Goods in 2005 and subsequently sold to Brown Shoe Company in February 2011. On August 25, 2011, AND1 was sold to Galaxy Brands, a brand management company based in New York. The company later merged with Sequential Brands Group, a publicly-traded brand management company, but the personnel managing AND1 never changed. Under Sequential, AND1 has reconnected with its roots, signing marquee NBA players and sponsoring tournaments worldwide.


title: AND1

text: In November 2012, AND1 signed then-Pacer Lance Stephenson to an endorsement deal. Stephenson had won the NYC basketball championships in all four years of high school, and became New York State's all-time leading scorer in high school basketball, named Mr. New York Basketball after his senior year. He would soon sign a multi-year deal with the Indiana Pacers, with AND1 signing him during his rookie season. Born Ready fit the AND1 streetball personality with his aggressive never-back-down attitude, which was put on national display during the 2014 NBA Conference Finals. Stephenson, who had led the league in triple-doubles that year and led the Pacers past the Knicks in the round prior, was paired against the Miami Heat’s LeBron James. From trash-talking to “mind games,” to even blowing in James ear at one point, Stephenson did whatever he could to get into James’ head and under his skin.


title: AND1

text: In celebration of their 20-year anniversary, the brand hosted the AND1 Labor Day Summer Remix, a $100,000 winner-take-all basketball tournament in August 2013. The tournament took place in Temple University in Philadelphia, and also included a $10,000 dunk contest.


title: AND1

text: Paying homage to Brooklyn streetball culture, AND1 partnered with "SLAM" magazine to host numerous events surrounding the 2015 NBA All-Star Game (played at the Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn). Various charity events with two of New York's greatest streetball legends Lance Stephenson and Rafer "Skip to My Lou" Alston were followed by the launch of an exclusive pop-up retail lounge on Flatbush Avenue across from Barclays Center.


title: AND1

text: Over one hundred AND1 High School and AAU teams play across America in various tournaments and leagues, and an AND1 circuit in the making. The company's annual overall revenue is approximately $140 million.


title: AND1

text: In February 2015, AND1 signed a lease to operate a retail store at 172 Flatbush Ave in Brooklyn, directly across the street from the Barclays Center. This is the company's first street retail location.


title: AND1

text: The AND1 Mixtape Tour has featured streetball players of fame, including Skip to My Lou, Main Event, The Professor, Hot Sauce, Spyda, 50, and AO. AND1 players have made annual tours around America to recruit the next streetball legend. This recruiting has since been edited for airing as "Street Ball" on ESPN and ESPN2. It is also parodied in the movie "" as "Game On".


title: AND1

text: The tour was televised in half-hour "Streetball" segments on ESPN2, and were compiled into highlight reels, offered under the mark AND1 Mixtape, which were sold on DVD. AND1 has released 10 volumes. The first mixtape was "AND1 Mixtape Volume 1" (1998) and the most recent is "AND1 Mixtape X" (2008).


title: AND1

text: Following a short hiatus, the AND1 Mixtape Tour would return in 2010, now known as the AND1 Live Streetball Tour. The AND1 team has toured the world, meeting success against most international teams and scoring wins over adversaries as diverse as Chile and Angola, remaining undefeated outside the United States until they lost to the debuting Puerto Rico Streetballers in 2012.


title: AND1

text: EA Sports' "NBA Street", published in 2001, featured dunks and passes in AND1 fashion, but was licensed from the NBA. In 2002, Activision announced the first AND1 video game called "Street Hoops", featuring AND1 players. Gameloft has also released a mobile game based on the AND1 franchise. In 2006, Ubisoft released the second AND1 video game, "AND 1 Streetball". Both games were developed by Black Ops Entertainment.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: Lemmings is a puzzle–strategy video game originally developed by DMA Design and published by Psygnosis for the Amiga in 1991 and later ported for numerous other platforms. The game was programmed by Russell Kay, Mike Dailly and David Jones, and was inspired by a simple animation that Dailly created while experimenting with Deluxe Paint.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: The objective of the game is to guide a group of anthropomorphised lemmings through a number of obstacles to a designated exit. To save the required number of lemmings to win, one must determine how to assign a limited number of eight different skills to specific lemmings that allow the selected lemming to alter the landscape, to affect the behaviour of other lemmings, or to clear obstacles to create a safe passage for the rest of the lemmings.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: "Lemmings" was one of the best-received video games of the early 1990s. It was the second-highest-rated game in the history of "Amstrad Action", and was considered the eighth-greatest game of all time by "Next Generation" in 1996. "Lemmings" is also one of the most widely ported and best-selling video games, and is estimated to have sold around 20 million copies between its various ports. The popularity of the game also led to the creation of sequels, remakes and spin-offs, and has also inspired similar games. Many retrospective reviews have cited it as one of the greatest games of all time.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: "Lemmings" is divided into a number of levels, grouped into four difficulty categories. Each level begins with one or more trap doors opening from above, releasing a steady line of lemmings who all follow each other. Levels include a variety of obstacles that prevent lemmings from reaching the exit, such as large drops, booby traps and pools of lava.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: The goal of each level is to guide at least a proportion of the green-haired, blue-robed lemmings from the entrance to the exit by clearing or creating a safe passage through the landscape for the lemmings to use. Unless assigned a special task, each lemming will walk in one direction ignoring any other lemming in its way (except Blockers), falling off any edges and turning around if they hit an obstacle they cannot pass. A lemming can die in a number of ways: falling from a great height, drowning or falling into lava, disappearing off the bottom of the level map, being caught in a trap or fire, or being assigned the Bomber skill. Every level has a time limit; if the timer expires, the level ends and the player is evaluated on the number of lemmings rescued.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: To successfully complete the level, the player must assign specific skills to certain lemmings. Which skills and how many uses of each are available to the player varies from level to level, and the player must assign the skills carefully to successfully guide the lemmings. There are eight skills that can be assigned: Climbers climb vertically though fall down if they hit an overhang. Floaters use a parachute to fall safely from heights. Bombers explode after a five-second timer, destroying themselves and any destructible landscape in close proximity, though not damaging other lemmings or traps. Blockers stand still and prevent other lemmings from passing; lemmings that hit a Blocker simply reverse direction. Builders build a stairway of 12 steps. Bashers, Miners and Diggers dig horizontally, diagonally downwards or directly downwards respectively.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: While the player is able to pause the game to inspect the level and status of the lemmings, skills can only be assigned in real-time. Lemmings are initially released at a rate predetermined by the level (from 1 to 99). The player can increase the rate as desired to a maximum of 99, and later decrease it down to, but not lower than, the initial rate. The player also has the option to "nuke" all the remaining lemmings on the screen, converting them to Bombers. This option can be used to abort a level when in a no-win situation, remove any Blockers that remain after the remaining lemmings have been rescued, or end a level quickly once the required percentage of saved lemmings has been reached.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: The four difficulty groups – "Fun", "Tricky", "Taxing" and "Mayhem" – are used to organise the levels to reflect their overall difficulty. This rating reflects several factors, including the number of obstacles the player has to surpass, the limitation on the number of types of skills available to assign, the time limit, the minimum rate of lemming release, and the percentage of lemmings that must be saved. Some versions have additional difficulty ratings with more levels in each.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: The original "Lemmings" also has 20 two-player levels. This took advantage of the Amiga's ability to support two mice simultaneously, and the Atari's ability to support a mouse and a joystick simultaneously. Each player is presented with their own view of the same map (on a vertically split screen), can only give orders to their own lemmings (green or blue), and has their own base. The goal is to get more lemmings (regardless of colour) into one's own base than the other player. Gameplay cycles through the 20 levels until neither player gets any lemmings home.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: Mike Dailly, the first employee of DMA Design and one of the programmers for "Lemmings", provided a detailed history of the development of the game entitled "The Lemmings Story" in 2006. David Jones, founder of DMA Design, has also commented on the development and success of "Lemmings".


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: The inspiration for gameplay came as a result of a simple animated character sprite in an 8×8 pixel box created by Dailly using Deluxe Paint as part of development for "Walker", then envisioned as a sequel to "Blood Money". Dailly was able to quickly produce an animated graphic showing his creations moving endlessly, with additional graphical improvements made by Gary Timmons and other members of the DMA Design team to help remove the stiffness in the animation. One member, Russell Kay, observed that "There's a game in that!", and later coined the term "lemmings" for these creations, according to Dailly. Allowing the creatures to move across the landscape was based on a "Salamander" weapon concept for "Blood Money" and demonstrated with the animations.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: Levels were designed based on a Deluxe Paint interface, which allowed several of the members to design levels, resulting in "hundreds of levels". There were several internal iterations of the levels, each designer challenging the others. Dailly pointed out that David Jones "used to try and beat us, and after proudly stabbing a finger at the screen and saying 'There! Beat that!', we'd calmly point out a totally new way of getting around all his traps, and doing it in a much simpler method. 'Oh...', he'd mutter, and scramble off to try and fix it." They also sent internally tested levels to Psygnosis, getting back the results of their testing via fax. While most were solved quickly, Dailly commented that "Every now and again though, the fax would be covered in scribbles with the time and comments crossed out again and again; this is what we were striving for while we were designing the levels, and it gave us all a warm fuzzy feeling inside."


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: Each of the designers had a somewhat different style in their levels: Dailly's levels often had titles containing clues to what to do (such as "It's Hero Time", suggesting that one lemming had to be separated from the crowd) and generally required the player to perform several actions at once; Gary Timmons's levels were minimalistic, with popular culture references in the titles, and Scott Johnston's (whose mother was the first voice of the lemmings) levels were generally tightly packed. Dailly was also responsible for the "custom" levels based on other Psygnosis and Reflections Interactive Amiga games, including "Shadow of the Beast", "Menace", "Awesome" and "Shadow of the Beast II". These "crossover" levels also used music from those games, though in ports these levels have been removed or altered to remove such references. After they developed most of the hard levels, they then created several simple levels either by copying the existing ones or creating new layouts; as Dailly states, "This I believe is where many games fall down today, they do not spend the time making a good learning curve." Timmons is credited with the official drawings of the lemmings, as necessitated by the need of Psygnosis for box cover artwork.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: Music was originally created by Brian Johnston (Scott's younger brother), who sampled bits of copyrighted music. This had been common practice, but at that point there was a growing awareness of music copyright. Psygnosis asked Tim Wright to replace the offending tracks, who often used arrangements and reworkings of classical and traditional music to avoid copyright problems. Music tracks in the game include: "Galop Infernal" from "Orpheus in the Underworld" (the music by Offenbach often used for the can-can), "Rondo alla Turca" from Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 11, "Dance of the Reed Flutes" from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, "Dance of the Little Swans" from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, "Ten Lemmings" (a track that uses melodies from traditional song "Ten Green Bottles", Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 (the part used as funeral march), Wagner's "Bridal Chorus" (popularly known as "Here Comes the Bride")), "London Bridge is Falling Down", the English folk tune "Forest Green" (adapted into the hymn "All Beautiful the March of Days"), the carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem" mixed with the melody from the film "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain", and "(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?".


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: The two-player option was inspired by then-current games "Populous" and "Stunt Car Racer". DMA Design initially wanted to use a null-modem connection between two machines to allow competitive play, but ended up using the ability of the Amiga to have two mouse pointer devices usable at the same time and thus created the split-screen mode.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: The popularity of the game on the Amiga led to its rapid porting to many other platforms, and it is regarded as one of the most widely ported video games. Within a year of its release, the game had been ported to Atari ST, Sinclair Spectrum, PC and SNES. David Jones stated that after porting the game to 20 systems, he stopped keeping count of additional ports. Other commercial ports of the original game include 3DO, Acorn Archimedes, Apple IIGS, Apple Macintosh, CDTV, Commodore 64, NES, Sega Master System and Mega Drive, PC Engine, Philips CD-i and Sharp X68000. In 1998, an open source and cross-platform clone was also made, called Pingus.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: The license to the "Lemmings" intellectual property had remained with Psygnosis, which became part of Sony Computer Entertainment in 1993 but ultimately folded in 2012, leaving "Lemmings" as a Sony property. Sony has used that to craft more modern remakes. In early 2006, Sony released a remake of "Lemmings" for the PlayStation Portable, developed by Team17. It features all 120 levels from the original game, 36 brand-new levels as well as DataPack support (similar to the Extra Track system featured in "Wipeout Pure"), and a user-level editor. Every level in the game is a pre-rendered 3D landscape, although their gameplay is still 2D and remains faithful to the original game. User levels can be constructed from pre-rendered objects and distributed by uploading them to a PlayStation-specific "Lemmings" online community. The soundtrack also marks the final video game score created by longtime composer Tim Follin after he announced his retirement from the industry in mid-2005. In October 2006 the game was ported by developer Rusty Nutz for the PlayStation 2 with use of the EyeToy. The basic change in the concept is that the player must stretch and use their limbs in the recorded picture to aid the lemmings. In 2007, Team17 produced a similar remake of "Lemmings" for the PlayStation 3 for download through the PlayStation Network. The game has the similar graphical improvements as the PSP title, as well as on-line scoreboards and additional levels developed for high-definition display, but lacks the ability to create and share levels as the PSP version offers. Another remake, "Lemmings Touch", was released for PlayStation Vita on 27 May 2014, developed by D3T Ltd. Sony studio Sad Puppy released a mobile-friendly version of "Lemmings" for iOS and Android in December 2018.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: "Lemmings" received some expansion packs following its launch. "Oh No! More Lemmings", originally released for the Amiga in 1991 both as a data disk or standalone game, added five varying difficulties – Tame, Crazy, Wild, Wicked and Havoc – each with 20 new levels. The game also features enhanced graphics and altered sound effects. The expansion was also ported to Acorn Archimedes, Atari ST, DOS, Macintosh, and SAM Coupé, and the levels were made available with the Game Boy Color, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation and Sega Mega Drive versions of "Lemmings". "Oh No! More Lemmings" received generally positive reviews. Dan Slingsby of "CU Amiga" found the game addictive, calling the puzzles "ingenious", and Peter Lee of "Amiga Action" praised the quality and difficulty of the levels; Stuart Campbell of "Amiga Power" was disappointed by the lack of fixes from the original game, and Ed Ricketts of "ST Format" criticised the difficulty gradient of the levels and the price of the expansion, but both ultimately gave positive reviews nonetheless.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: "Christmas Lemmings", also known as "Holiday Lemmings", was also released as a series of short games released between 1991 and 1994. The gameplay remains unchanged from the base game, which is not required. First released as "Xmas Lemmings" as two four-level demos in 1991 and 1992, there were two later full retail releases on the Amiga and Atari ST in 1993 and 1994, both with an additional 32 levels. The games were well-received; Rob Mead of "Amiga Format" described it as "funny, frustrating and incredibly addictive", despite being disappointed by the number of levels, and Will Greenwald of "PC Magazine" ranked it among the best Christmas video games in 2014.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: The original sales for "Lemmings" on the Amiga topped 55,000 copies on the first day of sales; in comparison, "Menace" sold 20,000 copies and "Blood Money" sold 40,000 copies cumulatively. With all ports included, Mike Dailly estimated that 15 million copies of "Lemmings" were sold between 1991 and 2006. In 2011, Luke Plunkett from "Kotaku" placed the figure at over 20 million, a figure which has been quoted as far back as 1997.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: At the time of its first release, "Lemmings" received several high scores from gaming magazines, with only the level of graphics and sound receiving some small amount of criticism. David Sears of "Compute!", in his review of "Lemmings" for the PC, stated that "perhaps Psygnosis has tapped into the human instinct for survival in formulating this perfect blend of puzzle, strategy, and action." "Amiga Computing" stated that ""Lemmings" is absolutely brilliant. Psygnosis have managed to produce a game that is not only totally original, but also features the kind of addicting gameplay that will keep the player coming back for more time and time again." A review from the "Australian Commodore and Amiga Review" ("ACAR") stated that "above all, the concept is simple, and the game is a lot of fun." "Computer Gaming World" stated that "Not since "Tetris" has this reviewer been so addicted to, or completely fascinated with, a series of challenging puzzles ... follow the crowd and get "Lemmings"". In 1992 the magazine named it its Action Game of the Year. The game was reviewed in 1991 in "Dragon" by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars. The Lessers reviewed the Macintosh version of the game in 1993 in "Dragon", also giving that version 5 stars.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: In 1994 "Electronic Gaming Monthly" complimented the Lynx version's large number of options and password feature, and remarked, ""Lemmings" has always been a good strategy game, and the Lynx version continues the tradition." The following year they reviewed the CD-i version, criticising that it has nothing but the obligatory full-motion video intro to set it apart from the numerous ports of the game that had already been released over the past four years. "GamePro" made the same criticisms, commenting that "this former 16-bit puzzler isn't going anywhere new on the CD-i."


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: "Next Generation"s review of the 3DO version assessed that "If you've played any version, you've played this one, too, but if you haven't tried it, this is one of the better ones, and it's still one game that's addictive as hell."


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: In 1996, "Computer Gaming World" declared "Lemmings" the 12th-best computer game ever released, and that same year, "Next Generation" declared it the 8th-greatest game of all time, and "second only to "Tetris"" in the puzzle genre. In 2004, readers of "Retro Gamer" voted "Lemmings" as the 21st-top retro game, with the editors calling it "perhaps Psygnosis' finest hour and a turning point in the puzzle genre." In 1991, "PC Format" named "Lemmings" one of the 50 best computer games ever. The editors wrote, "Yes, we know it sounds stupid, but you will like it – everyone else has." In 1994, "PC Gamer US" named "Lemmings" the 30th-best computer game ever. The editors called it "one of the biggest puzzlers ever released for PC" and "cleaner and less complicated" than its sequel. That same year, "PC Gamer UK" named it the 25th-best computer game of all time, calling it "a seminal title."


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: In 1998, "PC Gamer" declared it the 21st-best computer game ever released, and the editors called it "as fresh and addictive today as it was when it was first released". In 2018, Complex listed the game 70th on its "The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time". In 1995, Total! ranked the game 81st on their Top 100 SNES Games summarizing: "The game that spawned a dozen imitators is still one of the best platform puzzlers available."


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: "Lemmings" inspired several sequels, including the "Christmas Lemmings" short games that were released between 1991 and 1994, and the 1991 expansion "Oh No! More Lemmings". Stand-alone sequels were "" (1993), "All New World of Lemmings" (1994), "3D Lemmings" (1995) and "Lemmings Revolution" (2000). By mid-1995, "Lemmings" and its sequels had accumulated combined sales of more than 4 million units worldwide. Two spin-off games were also made, both in 1996; "Lemmings Paintball" and "The Adventures of Lomax".


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: The intellectual property (IP) of "Lemmings" stayed with the initial publisher Psygnosis, who were acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment in 1993. Sony gained the IP for "Lemmings" from this acquisition, though only had two entries: the 2006 "Lemmings" for PlayStation consoles, and the mobile title "Lemmings: The Puzzle Adventure" in 2017. Sony eventually licensed the rights to Exient Entertainment, who published the mobile title. Exient produced a 30th anniversary documentary of the history of "Lemmings", released in February 2022.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: Numerous clones of "Lemmings" were made. One of the first was "The Humans", released for the Amiga in 1992. General game concepts have been included in the open source "Pingus", where the player is required to safely guide penguins across landscapes using a similar array of tools. Other similar games include "Clones".


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: Yannick LeJacq of Kotaku, commenting on the 2014 game "MouseCraft" which incorporates elements of "Lemmings" and "Tetris", speculated that games like "Lemmings" would not be very successful in the current gaming market, as the pace of the game is far too slow to satisfy most players.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: In 2004, Graham Cormode proved that deciding whether it is possible to complete a level of Lemmings is NP-hard. Later, Giovanni Viglietta showed that the task is PSPACE-complete, even for levels where there is only one lemming to save.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: In 2010, it was announced that "Lemmings" would be ported to the iOS operating system by developer Mobile 1UP. On 29 June 2010, Mobile 1UP reported that Sony Computer Entertainment Europe had presented them with a cease-and-desist letter, forcing them to halt development of the port. In April 2011, Mobile 1UP has released a re-worked version of the work done in 2010 with a prehistoric setting (new artwork, sfx, music, levels) under the name "Caveman", available for the iOS and webOS platforms. Brutal Deluxe, the developer who did the porting of the Apple IIGS version of "Lemmings", has released the games' source code.


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: "Lemmings" has also been called a predecessor of the modern real-time strategy (RTS) video game genre. A 1991 "Amiga Power" article claimed that "Lemmings" "was the first major game to introduce the 'indirect-control' concept," an element that is now common in many RTS games. Blizzard Entertainment developer Bob Fitch said that part of the inspiration for the first "Warcraft" game, "", was based on developing a competitive multiplayer RTS that combined elements of "The Lost Vikings" (which he had worked on) and "Lemmings"; Fitch said "We just went, 'Oh it's so cool when you see lots of Lemmings all over the place. Why don't we have lots of Vikings all over instead, and then the Vikings can fight each other." "Lemmings" introduction of RTS elements has been noted by fantasy author Terry Pratchett; in his novel "Interesting Times", an army of golems is controlled in a fashion reminiscent of the "Lemmings" user interface. When readers asked if this was deliberate, Pratchett responded: "Merely because the red army can fight, dig, march and climb and is controlled by little icons? Can't imagine how anyone thought that... Not only did I wipe "Lemmings" from my hard disk, I overwrote it so I couldn't get it back."


title: Lemmings (video game)

text: "Lemmings" was one of six games featured in a stamp series issued by the Royal Mail in 2020 to pay tribute to the United Kingdom's early video game industry.


title: 1994 NBA draft

text: The 1994 NBA draft took place on June 29, 1994, at Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis. Two NBA rookies of the year were picked in the first round, as Jason Kidd and Grant Hill were co-winners of the award for the 1994–95 NBA season. Kidd and Hill would end up as perennial All-Stars (10 and 7-time selections, respectively), though Hill's career was marred by severe injuries.


title: 1994 NBA draft

text: The first overall pick Glenn Robinson was involved in a contract holdout shortly after being selected, reportedly seeking a 13-year, $100 million contract. Both Robinson and the Milwaukee Bucks eventually agreed on a 10-year, $68 million contract, which once stood as the richest contract ever signed by a rookie in professional sports. A fixed salary cap for rookies was implemented by the NBA the following season. Robinson himself had a productive NBA career, becoming a two-time NBA All-Star and winning an NBA Championship in 2005 in his final year with the San Antonio Spurs.


title: 1994 NBA draft

text: Notably, this is the final draft to date to see all of the first three picks make All-Star rosters with the teams that originally drafted them.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: Landonis Balthazar "Lando" Calrissian III is a fictional character in the "Star Wars" franchise. He was introduced in "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) as an old friend of Han Solo and the administrator of the floating Cloud City on the gas planet Bespin. Prior to the events of the film, Lando made a career as a gambler, con artist, playboy, mining engineer, and businessman, and was the owner of the "Millennium Falcon" until losing the ship to Han in a bet. In the film, when Cloud City is threatened by the Galactic Empire, Lando reluctantly betrays Han to Darth Vader, but later redeems himself by helping Han's friends escape from the Empire. In "Return of the Jedi" (1983), after becoming a general in the Rebel Alliance, Lando helps rescue Han from Jabba the Hutt and leads the attack on the second Death Star.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: Lando is portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in the original trilogy, as well as the sequel film "The Rise of Skywalker" (2019), marking one of the longest intervals between portrayals of a character by the same actor in American film history. Donald Glover portrayed a younger version of the character in the standalone film "" (2018), which depicts the beginnings of his friendship with Han. Lando also appears frequently in the "Star Wars" Expanded Universe of novels, comic books and video games, including a series of novels focused on him.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: The character has become one of the franchise's most popular, with Billy Dee Williams' performance receiving praise. Donald Glover's performance in "Solo" was also well received, being hailed as one of the film's highlights. Williams was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor twice for his performances in "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi".


title: Lando Calrissian

text: Lando is portrayed by Billy Dee Williams in "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980), "Return of the Jedi" (1983), and "The Rise of Skywalker" (2019), and by Donald Glover in "" (2018).


title: Lando Calrissian

text: Lando Calrissian first appears in "The Empire Strikes Back" as the administrator of Cloud City, an old friend of Han Solo (Harrison Ford), and the previous owner of Han's ship, the "Millennium Falcon". When Han, Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) arrive at Cloud City, Lando welcomes them as guests of honor - only to betray them to Darth Vader (portrayed by David Prowse, voiced by James Earl Jones), who plans to use them as bait to ensnare Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). Lando had reluctantly agreed to betray Han and company after Vader threatened to put Cloud City under the Galactic Empire's control if he refused. Lando allows Vader to freeze Han in carbonite and give him to bounty hunter Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch); when Vader takes Leia and Chewbacca prisoner, however, Lando's conscience gets the better of him, and in the ensuing evacuation of Cloud City he helps them escape in the "Falcon". He later assists in rescuing Luke from the underside of Cloud City. Afterwards, he promises to help find Han.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: In "Return of the Jedi", Lando goes undercover to help Luke rescue Han from crime lord Jabba the Hutt. During a battle with Jabba's thugs, Han saves Lando from being devoured by the Sarlacc; Lando then helps Han and the others destroy Jabba's barge. For his heroics, he is made a general in the Rebel Alliance. Lando then takes the pilot chair in his old ship, the "Millennium Falcon", and leads the attack on the second Death Star. He leads the Rebel strike on the battle station, and personally destroys its power core, causing the station to explode. He then joins the other Rebels on Endor in celebrating their victory and the end of the Empire.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: Lando did not appear in the first film of the sequel trilogy, "" (2015). According to Williams, the reason Lando did not return may have been that he did not fit into the storyline. His absence from the casting announcement caused the displeasure of some fans.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: Lando was also absent from "" (2017). During the early development of the film, director Rian Johnson briefly considered bringing back Lando as the codebreaker that Resistance members Finn (John Boyega) and Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) seek in the coastal city of Canto Bight, but Lando was finally written out of the film's script, with the codebreaker role ultimately going to Benicio del Toro's character DJ.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: Lando finally reappeared in 2019's "The Rise of Skywalker", marking one of the longest intervals between portrayals of a character by the same actor in American film history. In the backstory to the film, in the years of peace after the Galactic Civil War, Lando attempted to start a family, and had a daughter, who was kidnapped by unknown culprits when she was two years old. In time, it became clear that the First Order was behind both her abduction and those of other children of former Rebel leaders. After the tragedy of losing his daughter and his failure in a quest with Luke Skywalker to find answers about the growing darkness in the Force, Lando settled on the desert planet of Pasaana and adopted a life of solitude.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: Lando first appears in "The Rise of Skywalker" on Pasaana, guiding Rey (Daisy Ridley), Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), Finn, and Chewbacca toward a clue for the whereabouts of the Sith wayfinder. Poe asks Lando to aid the Resistance, but Lando refuses, saying he does not fly anymore, but sends his regards to Leia. Lando reappears much later in the film, upon Leia's death, and he tells a grieving Poe that he, Luke, Leia, and Han were similarly unprepared when they were fighting the Empire, but that they were able to succeed because they had each other. This inspires Poe to launch an offensive against the Sith Eternal forces, including the Final Order, with Lando traveling the galaxy to recruit Rebel veterans and other supporters of the Resistance's cause to help in the final battle. Just as the Resistance appears most overwhelmed in the battle, Lando, Chewbacca, and Wedge Antilles (Denis Lawson) arrive in the "Millennium Falcon" alongside a massive fleet of Resistance sympathizers, allies, and veterans, and they help to win the battle and the war. At the end of the film, as the galaxy is celebrating the Resistance's victory against Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) and the Sith Eternal, Jannah (Naomi Ackie), a former stormtrooper, approaches Lando and says she does not know where she is from; he tells her that they will find out together.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: Donald Glover portrays a young Lando Calrissian in "", which takes place roughly thirteen years before "The Empire Strikes Back". Glover had the opportunity to speak with Billy Dee Williams and seek his input. "He said, 'Just be charming'. Which is the best advice." Williams had expressed interest in making a cameo appearance (though likely as another character) in the film, but he did not ultimately appear.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: In the film, Lando is introduced as a gambler and "retired" smuggler who owns a ship fast enough for Han (Alden Ehrenreich) and his associates to use in stealing a load of raw starship fuel. Han tries to win the ship (the "Millennium Falcon") from him in a game of sabacc, but Lando cheats and cleans Han out. However, Lando agrees to join the team in exchange for a percentage of the profits from the mission. During the heist and subsequent escape, Lando is injured and his droid co-pilot L3-37 is irreparably damaged, but Han brings the "Falcon" to safety with help from L3's navigational database after he hotwires it into the ship's computer. Lando later takes the "Falcon" and abandons the team, but Han tracks him down and wins it from him in another game of sabacc, having stolen the card Lando had up his sleeve to let him cheat.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: Kathleen Kennedy said, in a statement, that a film focusing on Lando Calrissian could happen, but it would not be a priority at the time.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: Billy Dee Williams returned to the role in the "Star Wars Rebels" episodes "Idiot's Array" and "The Siege of Lothal".


title: Lando Calrissian

text: In "Idiot's Array", Lando wins Chopper (voiced by Dave Filoni), the repair droid of the crew of the "Ghost", in a game of sabacc, forcing the crew to assist him with a dangerous smuggling run to get their droid back. The crew become Lando's reluctant business partners following the ordeal, leading to their first encounter with the crime boss Azmorigan (voiced by James Hong). In "The Siege of Lothal", the crew of the "Ghost" approach Lando for help in getting off of Lothal, which is under Imperial occupation. He is also mentioned on occasion in various other episodes, becoming one of a couple of aliases employed by series protagonist Ezra Bridger (voiced by Taylor Gray).


title: Lando Calrissian

text: Lucasfilm is developing "Lando", a series centering on the character for Disney+, with a story by Justin Simien. While his involvement hasn't been officially confirmed, Lucasfilm has had discussions with Donald Glover about reprising his role from "Solo".


title: Lando Calrissian

text: Billy Dee Williams reprises his role as Lando Calrissian in various games, including as a playable character in "Star Wars Battlefront" and "Battlefront II". Only the second game narrates a continuous story.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: Lando Calrissian is the lead character in Marvel Comics' "Lando" (2015), a five-issue miniseries set shortly before the original "Star Wars" trilogy. Lando has a brief appearance in Marvel's comic miniseries "" (2015), set after "Return of the Jedi". Lando is also the lead character in the comic "Lando: Double or Nothing" (2018), a five-issue miniseries set just before "Solo: A Star Wars Story".


title: Lando Calrissian

text: The 2020 relaunch of Marvel's "Star Wars" series, picking up at the tail end of "The Empire Strikes Back", reveals that Lando returns to Cloud City to retrieve Lobot and help Luke look for his lightsaber.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: The novel "Star Wars: Last Shot" reveals that between "Return of the Jedi" and "The Force Awakens", Lando is considering settling down with a Twi'lek girlfriend.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: "Legends" novels, comics, and video games are not considered canonical to the films. With the 2012 acquisition of Lucasfilm by The Walt Disney Company, most of the licensed "Star Wars" novels and comics produced since the originating 1977 film "Star Wars" were rebranded as "Star Wars Legends" and declared non-canon to the franchise in April 2014.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: The "Star Wars" comic book series released by Marvel Comics featured Lando as a prominent character following "The Empire Strikes Back". In the comic series, he has a crime lord nemesis named Drebble, and Lando frequently made use of his foil's name as a cover identity so that any animosity he generates while using the alias will be brought against the real Drebble, not Lando himself. This eventually backfires when "Drebble's" exploits are recognized by the Rebellion and Lando—being the only person who knows of him—has to present the real Drebble with an award for his own activities.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: Lando is a supporting character in "Legends" novels that took place after "Return of the Jedi" commonly depicted Lando as getting involved in a variety of entrepreneurial schemes, including Nomad City in Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy and the Kessel Spice Mines in the works of Kevin J. Anderson. During "The Corellian Trilogy", Lando goes on a galaxy-wide hunt for a rich wife, ultimately marrying Tendra Risant. With his in-laws' money and his entrepreneurial abilities, he opens a mining facility on the outer rim planet of Dubrillion. In "The New Jedi Order" and beyond, Lando continues being a valuable ally and friend to the Skywalker/Solo family. In "Fury", the seventh novel of the "Legacy of the Force" series, Lando announces to Han and Leia that he and Tendra are having a child.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: Kevin J. Anderson stated that Lucasfilm toyed with the idea of killing off Lando, noting the character had run his course for Expanded Universe authors in the 1990s.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: The Lando Calrissian Adventures is a 1983 trilogy of science fiction novels by L. Neil Smith. Set in the "Star Wars" Expanded Universe, the novels chronicle Lando's smuggling days before the events of the original "Star Wars" trilogy.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: The series has been described as "space pulp", and highlights the differences between Lando and Han Solo. The books were released in July, October, and December 1983, and were the first "Star Wars" books released since "The Han Solo Adventures" (1979–1980); both trilogies were originally published by Del Rey, a division of Ballantine Books. They were also among the last novels in the franchise until Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy was released in the early 1990s.


title: Lando Calrissian

text: The series is set 3–2 years before the original "Star Wars" film, and is brought into chronological context with the rest of the Expanded Universe in "Rebel Dawn " (1998), the final book of A. C. Crispin's "Han Solo Trilogy".


title: Lando Calrissian

text: For the duration of the trilogy, Lando is accompanied by a droid named Vuffi Raa. The novelization of "Solo: A Star Wars Story" makes reference to the events of the first book as a previous adventure of Lando's, which he recounts while composing his autobiographical ""Calrissian Chronicles"". He further estimates that it will be the first in a trilogy of his adventures.