title: More Than Words

text: The song's music video was filmed in black and white and was produced and directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. It starts with Pat Badger turning off his amplifier and putting down his bass, and Paul Geary putting down his drumsticks. Nuno and Gary are then seen performing the song, while the other band members are shown in front of them, holding up their lighters.


title: SC Heerenveen

text: Sportclub Heerenveen (; West Frisian: Sportklub It Hearrenfean) is a Dutch football club from Heerenveen. They currently play in the Eredivisie, the top level of football in the Netherlands.


title: SC Heerenveen

text: Sportclub Heerenveen was founded on 20 July 1920 in the town of Heerenveen, Friesland, as Athleta. It changed name twice, first to Spartaan and then to v.v. Heerenveen in 1922. While the Netherlands was occupied by Germany, Heerenveen won three successive North of the Netherlands championships, and following the end of World War II it went on to win the same title six times in a row; the club's dominance partly ascribed to the presence of Abe Lenstra. During this period, Lenstra led Heerenveen to a famous victory over Ajax in one of the most noted games in Dutch domestic football history. Trailing 5–1 with 25 minutes remaining, the Frisian team inexplicably fought back for a 6–5 victory.


title: SC Heerenveen

text: During the 1950s, Heerenveen regional dominance faded and after Dutch football turned professional Lenstra left to join Sportclub Enschede, before the club he departed was relegated to the Tweede Divisie. By the end of the decade, Heerenveen was in the Eerste Divisie, but found itself relegated again. In 1969–70, the Frisian club won the Tweede Divisie to return to the Eerste Divisie and for two seasons in the 1970s, the club was close to achieving promotion to the top-flight Eredivisie. By 1974, the club was in financial trouble and to ensure its survival it was split into amateur and professional sections on 1 June 1977, the professional part being renamed sc Heerenveen.


title: SC Heerenveen

text: In the 1980s, Heerenveen twice made the promotion playoffs, but were unsuccessful both times. It finally reached the Eredivisie in 1990, becoming the first Frisian club to reach the top level, at the expense of near-neighbours Cambuur. The achievement was overseen by Frisian coach Foppe de Haan. Heerenveen's first season in the Netherlands' top division was not at all successful and it was relegated, before returning in 1993, though they reached the final of the KNVB Cup while still an Eerste Divisie club. Having established itself as a top-flight club, Heerenveen moved to a new stadium, named after their most celebrated player, the Abe Lenstra Stadion, and reached the final of the KNVB Cup for a second time. The 1998 semi-final in the cup competition was lost to Ajax. Because Ajax and the other finalist, PSV, had both qualified for the cup final, a decision match was needed to fill in the vacant spot for the next season's UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. Heerenveen had to play against the other losing semi-finalist, Twente. Heerenveen won that match in which Ruud van Nistelrooy scored his last goal for Heerenveen. The match ended 3–1.


title: SC Heerenveen

text: Heerenveen became regular competitors in the UEFA Cup, and in 1999–2000 finished second in the Eredivisie, its highest ever finish, and qualified for the 2000–01 UEFA Champions League.


title: SC Heerenveen

text: The club was led from 1983 until September 2006 by president Riemer van der Velde, the longest tenure of any president with a professional club in the Netherlands. As the results of recent transfers that include Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Afonso Alves, Michael Bradley, Miralem Sulejmani, Petter Hansson and Danijel Pranjić (and earlier players like Jon Dahl Tomasson, Marcus Allbäck, Erik Edman, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Igor Korneev and Daniel Jensen), Heerenveen is one of the most financially secure Eredivisie clubs. A 2010 report by the Dutch football association showed that Heerenveen is the only Eredivisie club that has a financially secure budget. Under the tenure of Trond Sollied, Heerenveen won its first KNVB Cup, also its first ever major trophy. Trond Sollied, however, was sacked on 31 August 2009 due to a weak opening of the season and a conflict with the board.


title: SC Heerenveen

text: On 17 May 2009, the club defeated Twente 5–4 in a penalty shoot-out to win the Dutch Cup for the first time after a 2–2 draw in the final, with Gerald Sibon scoring the winning penalty. On 13 February 2012, it was announced that Marco van Basten would replace Ron Jans, who had led Heerenveen for two years, as team manager for the 2012–13 season.


title: SC Heerenveen

text: The club plays its home matches at the Abe Lenstra Stadium, which opened in 1994 and holds 26,100 people. Before that, the team played at a ground with the same name elsewhere in the town, but it could not meet the increasing popularity of the club. Throughout the years, the club developed several plans to further expand the stadium. One of the plans was to extend at least one side stand towards the pitch, as seen in English football stadiums. Due to deteriorating league results and financial limitedness, however, those plans were shelved. It is uncertain whether or not the club will ever carry them out. Before the move to the Abe Lenstra Stadion, Heerenveen played at the Sportpark Noord. The club's training facilities are regarded as world class, which is said to be a major factor in their recruitment of younger players. The name of the clubs facilities is sportpark . The facilities are shared with VV Heerenveen and sc Heerenveen (women).


title: SC Heerenveen

text: The crest on the club emblem is the symbol of the flag of Friesland. The flag of Friesland is based on the arms of the 15th century. The stripes and "seeblatt" shapes represent the districts of Friesland.


title: SC Heerenveen

text: A unique tradition in the Dutch Eredivisie is that the Frisian national anthem is played and sung before every domestic match. UEFA does not allow this tradition in European matches. Nevertheless, the anthem is sung by the supporters anyway.


title: SC Heerenveen

text: Heerenveen retain a very fierce rivalry with SC Cambuur. One of the reasons of the rivalry is the short distance between the two clubs. Because of that the clubs often refer to each other as DKV which stands for Dertig Kilometer Verderop (Thirty Kilometers Away) so that they don't have to mention each other's names. However, the biggest and also the most confusing reason is the background of the clubs. Many people who aren't involved in the rivalry find it difficult to understand. Most of the Heerenveen fans are from small villages from the entire province (and even outside it) and are very proud of their Frisian identity. Since the 80's the club have been expressing this Frisian pride to the rest of the Netherlands. The Frisian flag, the Frisian anthem, all Frisian symbols were linked to the club, which made Heerenveen the face of Frisia. Because of this Cambuur slowly disappeared in the shadow of Heerenveen, as a reaction to this Cambuur fans started distancing themselves from the Frisian identity. Nowadays Cambuur don't consider themselves Frisian even though they are from the capital of the province. They now call themselves Leeuwarders aka people from the city. Heerenveen fans are mockingly called boeren (farmers) because Heerenveen isn't a city and the fans mainly live in small villages. Because of the successes of Heerenveen and the meager performances of Cambuur including almost going bankrupt, the rivalry was almost forgotten. When Cambuur got promoted back to the Eredivisie in 2013 by winning the 2012/13 season of the Jupiler League the rivalry got revived. Before the meeting on 29 September 2013 the game hadn't been played for 13 years, giving Cambuur a great opportunity to prove themselves. Heerenveen won that game 2–1. The away game later in the season was won 3-1 by Cambuur.


title: SC Heerenveen

text: The absence of Cambuur caused FC Groningen to be the nearest Eredivisie team and soon it became rivals with Heerenveen. Strikingly, both northern sides used to maintain more or less of a friendship in the past. Therefore, this Northern Derby rivalry is only based on geographical location. Because most Heerenveen fans have always considered Cambuur as main rivals, this derby is often referred to as a surrogate derby. Traditionally, the winner claims the title "Pride of the North".


title: SC Heerenveen

text: Days before the game, Heerenveen and Groningen fans tease each other by means of playful actions, usually with no violence. Heerenveen fans once stole the centre spot from the , and raised the Frisian flag at the Martinitoren, the highest tower in Groningen, combined with a banner saying ""SCH op eenzame hoogte" (SCH on lonely height)". The front yard of a Groningen chairman once got filled with rubble from a construction site. This was because the construction of the Euroborg had to be halted due to a major design mistake. Groningen fans countered by painting a statue of all-time Heerenveen hero Abe Lenstra green and white, the colours of Groningen. They also transformed a viaduct near Heerenveen to green and white.


title: SC Heerenveen

text: A year later, in the 2001–02 season, Groningen fans awarded Heerenveen player Anthony Lurling the title of "Biggest cheat of the season" and handed him therefore a sewing machine. In that same week the town signs of Heerenveen were changed to "Hoerenveen It Sucks" ("Whore"-veen) by the Groningen supporters. The following season, Groningen fans teased the Heerenveen following again, this time by establishing a border post on the border of Groningen and Friesland.


title: SC Heerenveen

text: Below is a table with sc Heerenveen's domestic results since the introduction of the Eredivisie in 1956.


title: SC Heerenveen

text: Players listed below have had junior and/or senior international cap(s) for their respective countries before, while and/or after playing at Heerenveen.


title: SC Heerenveen

text: In 2007, SC Heerenveen created a women's football team, which competes in the Vrouwen Eredivisie, and between 2012 and 2015 in the BeNe League. While it has ranked mostly in the table's bottom positions, in 2011 it reached the national cup's final, lost against AZ. Vivianne Miedema started her profesional career at Heerenveen.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) is a stock car racing series organized by NASCAR. It is promoted as NASCAR's second-tier circuit to the organization's top level Cup Series. NXS events are frequently held as a support race on the day prior to a Cup Series event scheduled for that weekend.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: The series was previously called the Budweiser Late Model Sportsman Series in 1982 and 1983, the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series from 1984 through 2002, the NASCAR Busch Series from 2003 through 2007, and the NASCAR Nationwide Series from 2008 through 2014. Since 2015, it is sponsored by Comcast via its consumer cable and wireless brand Xfinity.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: The series emerged from NASCAR's Sportsman division, which had been formed in 1950 as NASCAR's short track race division. It was NASCAR's fourth series (after the Modified and Roadster series in 1948 and Strictly Stock Series in 1949). The sportsman cars were not current model cars and could be modified more, but not as much as Modified series cars. It became the Late Model Sportsman Series in 1968, and soon featured races on larger tracks such as Daytona International Speedway. Drivers used obsolete Grand National cars on larger tracks but by the inception of the touring format in 1982, the series used older compact cars. Short track cars with relatively small 300 cubic inch V-8 motors were used. Drivers used smaller current year models featuring V6 motors.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: The modern-day Xfinity Series was formed in 1982, when Anheuser-Busch sponsored a newly reformed late-model sportsman series with its Budweiser brand. The series switched sponsorship to Busch in 1984. It was renamed in 1986 to the Busch Grand National Series.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: Grand National was dropped from the series' title in 2003 as part of NASCAR's brand identity (the Grand National name was later used for the Busch East and Winston West series as part of a nationwide standardization of rules for NASCAR's regional racing; both series are now run under ARCA Menards Series banner after NASCAR purchased the organization in 2018). Anheuser-Busch dropped the sponsorship in 2007; Nationwide Insurance took over the sponsorship for the 2008 season, renaming it the Nationwide Series. The Nationwide sponsorship was a seven-year contract, and did not include the banking and mortgage departments of Nationwide. The sponsorship reportedly carried a $10 million commitment for 2008, with 6% annual escalations thereafter.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: On September 3, 2014, it was announced that Comcast would become the new title sponsor of the series via its cable television and internet brand Xfinity, renaming it the Xfinity Series. In 2016, NASCAR implemented a seven-race Chase system similar to the one used in the NASCAR Cup Series.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: Xfinity race fields have varied in the number of drivers. Prior to 2013, the grid size resembled its Cup counterpart with 43 cars per race; that year, it shrank to 40 maximum cars. The field was further reduced in 2019 and 2020 to 38 and 36, respectively. During the 2020 season, fields were temporarily increased to 40 cars to accommodate part-time teams that were otherwise unable to qualify due to such sessions being canceled in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: On March 6, 2005, the series held its first race outside the United States, the Telcel-Motorola 200. The race was held in Mexico City, Mexico at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, a track that has held Formula One and Champ Car races in the past. It was won by Martin Truex Jr. On August 4, 2007, the series held its second race outside the United States, at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec, another road course. It was won by Kevin Harvick, while Quebec native Patrick Carpentier finished second. In July 2008, NASCAR announced that the Nationwide Series would not return to Mexico City in 2009, and in 2012 they announced that it would not be returning to Montreal in 2013.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: In 2016, the NXS and Truck Series adopted a playoff format similar to the NASCAR Cup Series Chase for the Championship. Unlike the Cup Series, whose Chase consists of four rounds, the Xfinity Series and Truck Series both use a three-round format. After each of the first two rounds, the four Chase grid drivers with the fewest season points are eliminated from the grid and Chase contention.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: In the 1980s, races were sparsely shown, mainly by ESPN if they were covering the cup race at the same track. Starting in 1990, more races began to be shown. By the mid-1990s, all races were shown. Most standalone races were aired on TNN, which helped grow coverage of the series, while races that were companion races with Winston Cup dates mostly aired on the network airing the Cup race. TNN aired some of these races, which also aired on CBS, NBC, ESPN, ABC and TBS.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: From 2001 until 2006, Fox Sports covered the entire first half of the Busch Grand National season, while NBC and TNT both aired races during the second half, with Turner Sports producing all the coverage for both networks. However, in even numbered years, coverage was changed, with the opening race at Daytona airing on NBC in 2004, on TNT in 2002 and 2006 (due to NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics) and the track's July race airing on FX. Large portions of Fox's coverage aired on sister network FX, with a few marquee events on the network itself.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: From 2007 until 2014, ESPN was the home of the renamed Nationwide Series. Generally four races per season aired on ABC, with the remainder on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNews. Early in ESPN's run, ESPN Classic was used for NNS overflow, however with less carriage of that network, this practice ended. Fox Sports made a return to the series, airing the 2011 Bubba Burger 250 at Richmond on Speed Channel, as ESPN gave up its exclusive rights to the race because of programming conflicts.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: In 2015, the NXS returned to Fox Sports during the first half of the season. Like the previous time Fox held rights to the series, most of the coverage aired on cable, though this time it aired on Fox Sports 1. Four races aired on Fox itself until 2019, when all races moved to FS1. The second half of the NXS season is televised by NBC Sports. Four to five races air on NBC itself, while the others air on NBCSN (until 2020) or, during the Olympics, CNBC or USA Network (prior to 2020)(from 2021 on USA Network will do all races not aired on NBC or Fox sports)


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: The NXS is available in most Latin American countries on cable and satellite TV. Since 2006, Fox Sports 3 (formerly called SPEED until 2013) carries live coverage of all events. The races are also shown on Fox Sports Latin America, some of them live and some tape-delayed depending on the network's schedule. Televisa Deportes also broadcast a 30-minute recap every Sunday morning on national television in Mexico. In Brazil Fox Sports 2 carries all three series.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: Network Ten's additional high-definition service, ONE, began broadcasting races from the NXS live or near live during the 2008 season. ONE continued to air highlights packages of each race until the end of 2014. Broadcasts of the series are now exclusively shown on the Fox Sports pay TV channels.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: All races are live on TSN channels using FOX's or NBC's coverage. Also, races are broadcast on RDS or RDS2 in French using the world feed produced by NASCAR.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: In 2012, Motors TV broadcasts all Xfinity races live, delayed and highlights, until 2018 when the channel ceased operations.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: All races are live on Sports Illustrated Television channels using FOX's or NBC's coverage with highlights on Fox Sports Asia.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: Since the early days of the Xfinity Series, many NASCAR Cup Series drivers have used their days off to drive in the NXS. This can be for any number of reasons, most prominent or often claimed is to gain more "seat time", or to familiarize themselves with the track. Examples of this would be Dale Earnhardt, who won the very first NXS race, and Kyle Busch, who has won the most races in NXS history.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: In recent years, this practice had been dubbed "Buschwhacking" by its detractors. The colloquialism originated when Anheuser-Busch was the main sponsor of the series by combining the name "Busch" with the term "bushwhacker," but it has gradually fallen out of use since Anheuser-Busch's sponsorship ended. Other nicknames, such as Claim Jumper (for when Nationwide was the series sponsor), and Signal Pirate (for the current sponsor Xfinity) have never really caught on, although the generic term "Cup leech" is often used after the end of Busch sponsorship.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: Critics claim that NASCAR Cup Series drivers racing in the NXS take away opportunities from the NXS regulars, usually younger and less experienced drivers. On the other hand, many fans claim that without the NASCAR Cup Series stars and the large amount of fan interest they attract on their own races, the NXS would be inadequate as a high-tier division. In addition, many NXS drivers have welcomed the Cup drivers because it gives them the opportunity to drive with more seasoned veterans.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: In 2007, the NASCAR Cup Series began racing with the Car of Tomorrow, a radically new specification different from the NXS. NASCAR Cup Series drivers have admitted that driving the Xfinity car the day before the race does little to help with the NASCAR Cup Series race, as the cars differ greatly. This loosely resulted in the new Nationwide Series car making its debut in the 2010 Subway Jalapeño 250 at Daytona International Speedway. This car has a set-up closer to the current Cup car and some Cup drivers who have tested the car say it has similar handling characteristics. The new car has gone full-time since the 2011 season. In 2007, six out of the top ten drivers in the final point standings were Cup regulars, with Jason Leffler being the only non-Cup driver in that group to win a race in 2007. This number decreased from 2006 when 8 out of 10 drivers were Cup regulars. The decreased number is attributed to Cup regulars running only partial schedules, allowing for more NXS regulars to reach the top ten in points. However, the champions from 2006 to 2010 were all Cup regulars driving the full series schedule (Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, and Brad Keselowski). As a result, beginning with the 2011 season, NASCAR implemented a rule stating that drivers could only compete for the drivers' championship in one of three national series (Cup Series, Xfinity, and Truck) of the drivers' choosing.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: On October 26, 2016, NASCAR announced plans to limit Cup participation in the lower series starting in 2017. Cup drivers who were competing for points in the Cup Series with at least five years of experience in the series would be allowed to compete in up to ten NXS races, but are banned from racing in the series' regular season finale, Chase, and Dash 4 Cash races.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: With the advent of NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow, NXS cars have become very different from their NASCAR Cup Series counterparts, the main differences being a slightly shorter wheelbase (105" instead of 110"), 100 pounds less weight, and a less powerful engine. In the past, NXS competitors could use makes of cars not used in the Cup series, as well as V-6 engines instead of Cup's V-8s.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: In the early 1980s, teams were switching from the General Motors 1971–77 X-Body compact cars with 311-cubic inch engines. Later, teams were using General Motors 1982–87 G-body cars. Ford teams have used the Thunderbird cars consistently.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: In 1989, NASCAR changed rules requiring cars to use current body styles, similar to the Cup cars. However, the cars still used V6 engines. The cars gradually became similar to Cup cars.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: In 1995, changes were made. The series switched to V-8s with a compression ratio of 9:1 (as opposed to 14:1 for Cup at the time). The vehicle weight with driver was set at 3,300 pounds (as opposed to 3,400 for Cup). The body style changes, as well as the introduction of V-8s, made the two series' cars increasingly similar.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: The suspensions, brake systems, transmissions, were identical between the two series, but The Car of Tomorrow eliminates some of these commonalities. The Car of Tomorrow is taller and wider than the Generation 4-based vehicles in the then-Nationwide Series, and until 2010, it utilizes a front "splitter", opposed to a front valance. The Car of Tomorrow has also been setting pole speeds slower than the NXS cars at companion races.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: Previously, Busch Series cars used fuel that contained lead. NASCAR conducted a three-race test of unleaded gasoline in this series that began on July 29, 2006, with a race at Gateway International Raceway. The fuel, Sunoco GT 260 Unleaded, became mandatory in all series starting with the second weekend of the 2007 series, with Daytona being the last race weekend using leaded gasoline.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: Another distinction between the cars started in 2008: Goodyear had developed a rain tire for NASCAR road course racing in both series but NASCAR had yet to use them under race conditions by the time NASCAR abandoned the program for the Cup Series in 2005 (the Cup Series eventually used rain tires at the 2020 Bank of America Roval 400 and 2021 Texas Grand Prix), but the Busch Series continued to use rain tires in races at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, since the races could not be planned with rain dates. When rain started to fall at the 2008 NAPA Auto Parts 200, the tires were used in the rain for the first time.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: Another distinction was added in 2012, when NASCAR changed the fuel delivery system in the Cup cars from carburetion to fuel injection. NXS cars continue to use carburetors. Furthermore, with the Cup Series' switch to Next Gen car in 2022, Xfinity cars (as well as Truck Series vehicles) continues to use traditional five-lug steel wheels and centered door numbers, as opposed to an aluminum center lock wheel and numbers being placed behind the front wheel on the Next Gen Cup car.


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: The then Nationwide Series unveiled its "Car of Tomorrow" (CoT) at the July 2010 race at Daytona International Speedway. Before being fully integrated in the 2011 season, it was also used in 2010 races at Michigan International Speedway, Richmond International Raceway and Charlotte Motor Speedway. The Xfinity CoT has important differences from the NASCAR Cup Series CoT, and the now-retired Generation 4 style car. The body and aerodynamic package differs from the NASCAR Cup Series cars, marketing American pony cars from the 1960s such as the Ford Mustang, Dodge Challenger, and Chevrolet Camaro. The Xfinity CoT shares its chassis with the NASCAR Cup Series CoT, but has a shorter wheelbase of 105 inches (2667 millimeters).


title: NASCAR Xfinity Series

text: Each manufacturer uses a distinct body design (similar to 1960s muscle cars), built within strict aerodynamic guidelines provided by NASCAR. The Chevrolet car body currently resembles the Camaro SS, after initially running the Impala and then the Zeta-based Camaro (which coincided with GM's Cup car being its four-door Zeta counterpart, the Holden VF Commodore based Chevrolet SS, being used in Cup at the time). Ford uses the Mustang GT. Toyota runs the Camry, reconfigured in 2015 to resemble the current production model. Toyota announced they would be running the Supra starting in 2019, replacing the Camry, which had been run in the series since Toyota joined the Xfinity Series in 2007. Dodge teams used the Challenger R/T model, despite the manufacturer pulling all factory support after 2012 (though it continued in Canada as FCA Canada still supports the Pinty's Series). Following Dodge's exit, smaller underfunded teams continued to run second-hand Challenger chassis without factory support (thus earning the nickname "Zombie Dodges"). As a result of a rules change after the 2018 season, all Challenger chassis were rendered ineligible for competition, as the series made the switch to composite body panels. Since FCA had pulled factory support years earlier, no new body was submitted for competition, ending the possibility of running a Challenger chassis in the series.


title: Kh-31

text: The Kh-31 (; AS-17 'Krypton') is a Russian air-to-surface missile carried by aircraft such as the MiG-29 or Su-27. It is capable of Mach 3.5 and was the first supersonic anti-ship missile that could be launched by tactical aircraft.


title: Kh-31

text: There are several variants; the Kh-31 is best known as an anti-radiation missile (ARM) but there are also anti-shipping and target drone versions. There has been talk of adapting it to make an "AWACS killer", a long-range air-to-air missile.


title: Kh-31

text: The proliferation of surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) has made the Suppression of Enemy Air Defences (SEAD) a priority for any modern air force intending offensive action. Knocking out air search radars and fire control radars is an essential part of this mission. ARMs must have sufficient range that the launch platform is out of range of the SAMs, high speed to reduce the risk of being shot down and a seeker that can detect a range of radar types, but they do not need a particularly big warhead.


title: Kh-31

text: The Soviet Union's first ARM was developed by the Raduga OKB engineering group responsible for the Soviet Union's missiles for heavy bombers. The Kh-22P was developed from the 6-tonne Kh-22 (AS-4 "Kitchen") missile. Experience gained with this led in 1973 to the Kh-28 (AS-9 "Kyle") carried by tactical aircraft such as the Su-7B, Su-17 and Su-24. It had Mach 3 capability and a range, greater than the contemporary AGM-78 Standard ARM. The Kh-28 was succeeded by the Kh-58 in 1978, which has similar speed and range but replaces the dual-fuel rocket motor with a much safer RDTT solid propellant.


title: Kh-31

text: The development of more sophisticated SAMs such as the MIM-104 Patriot and the US Navy's Aegis combat system put pressure on the Soviets to develop better ARMs in turn. Zvezda came at the problem from a different angle to Raduga, having a background in lightweight air-to-air missiles. However, in the mid-1970s they had developed the successful Kh-25 family of short-range air-to-surface missiles, including the Kh-25MP (AS-12 "Kegler") for anti-radar use. Zvezda started work on a long-range ARM and the first launch of the Kh-31 was in 1982. It entered service in 1988 and was first displayed in public in 1991, the Kh-31P at Dubai and the Kh-31A at Minsk.


title: Kh-31

text: In December 1997 it was reported that a small number of Kh-31s had been delivered to China, but that "production had yet to begin". It was around this time that the Russians sold Su-30MKK 'Flanker-G' aircraft to the Chinese. It seems that the original deliveries were of the original Russian model designated as X-31, to allow testing while the KR-1 model was being developed for licence production. Local production may have started by July 2005.


title: Kh-31

text: Russian development has accelerated since Zvezda was subsumed into the Tactical Missiles Corporation in 2002, with the announcement of the 'D' extended range models and the 'M' model mid-life updates (see Variants section below).


title: Kh-31

text: In many respects the Kh-31 is a miniaturised version of the P-270 Moskit (SS-N-22 'Sunburn') and was reportedly designed by the same man. The missile is conventionally shaped, with cruciform wings and control surfaces made from titanium. The two-stage propulsion is notable. On launch, a solid-fuel booster in the tail accelerates the missile to Mach 1.8 and the motor is discarded. Then four air intakes open up and as in the Franco-German ANS/ANF the empty rocket case becomes the combustion chamber of a kerosene-fuelled ramjet, which takes it beyond Mach 4.


title: Kh-31

text: The L-111E seeker of the anti-radar version has a unique antenna, an interferometer array of seven spiral antennas on a steerable platform. The seekers delivered to China in 2001-2 were long, in diameter, and weighed .


title: Kh-31

text: The Kh-31P ARM entered service in Russia in 1988 and the Kh-31A anti-shipping version in 1989. Unlike its predecessors, it can be fitted to almost any of Russia's tactical aircraft, from the Su-17 to MiG-31.


title: Kh-31

text: In 2001 India bought Kh-31s for its Su-30MKI; they appear to have bought 60 Kh-31A and 90 Kh-31P. A few Kh-31P/KR-1's were delivered to China in 1997 but these were apparently for testing and development work. The Chinese ordered Russian missiles in late 2002 or early 2003, leading to 200 KR-1's in their inventory by 2005; the Chinese press reported in July 2005 that Su-30MKK's of the 3rd Air Division had been equipped with the missiles.


title: Kh-31

text: The US Navy bought MA-31 target drones. An $18.468-million order for thirty-four MA-31 was placed in 1999, but this order was blocked by the Russians. The MA-31 was launched from an F-4 Phantom, and work was done on a kit to launch it from an F-16.


title: Kh-31

text: According to some reports, the missile was used by the Russian Air Force during the South Ossetian conflict in 2008. In particular, it was reported that on August 10, 2008 a Russian Air Force Su-34 struck a Georgian air defense radar near the city of Gori with Kh-31P anti-radar missiles. Georgian air defenses were disabled in order to avoid further losses.


title: Kh-31

text: An active/passive air-to-air version for use against slow-moving support aircraft, a so-called "AWACS killer", was announced at the 1992 Moscow air show with range. That would be less than the promised by the Vympel R-37 (AA-13 'Arrow') and Novator R-172 missiles, but a Kh-31 derivative could be carried by a wider range of aircraft. However this may have been mere propaganda; in 2004 the Tactical Missiles Corporation "emphatically denied" that it had ever worked on an air-to-air version of the Kh-31. In 2005 rumours emerged of a Russian "AWACS-killer missile" based on the Kh-31A anti-shipping model, and of the Chinese adapting the YJ-91, derived from the Kh-31P, for the same purpose. In 2017, a representative of the Mikoyan company claimed that an air-to-air variant of the Kh-31 was in development, intended to equip the MiG-35, but this is not confirmed.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: Wipeout is an American television game show. It features contestants competing in (what was billed as) the "World's Largest" obstacle course which originally aired on ABC from June 24, 2008 to September 7, 2014. In 2021, the show was rebooted on TBS, with John Cena, Nicole Byer, and Camille Kostek as hosts.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: The show was originally hosted and commentated by John Henson and John Anderson, while Jill Wagner acted as the "on-location" reporter. The interim reporter for one season was Vanessa Lachey. The creators and executive producers are Matt Kunitz and Scott Larsen. Distribution of the show was handled by Endemol Shine. The show was taped at Sable Ranch in Canyon Country, Santa Clarita, California, north of Los Angeles.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: The series premiered on June 24, 2008, on ABC. After the pilot was shot, co-host Elon Gold was replaced. Producers called in Michael Glazer to find a "comic host replacement" that eventually went to John Henson. The first season's success spawned a series of international versions of "Wipeout", debuting in countries including the United Kingdom and Argentina in January 2009.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: On December 8, 2008, ABC announced plans to counter-program NBC's Super Bowl game-day telecasts with a sports-star-studded episode of "Wipeout", entitled "Wipeout Bowl". The episode was broadcast immediately following the game. The episode featured female cheerleaders competing against male "couch potato" sports fans. During the hour-long special, Monica Kauffman became the show's first female competitor to win. Following the episode, an announcement was made that a second season had been commissioned, and a promo for the season was subsequently broadcast.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: The second season was broadcast during the summer of 2009. According to "TV Week", in 2009 "Wipeout" became the third most popular game show in the world, based on ratings. On July 22, 2009, "Wipeout" was renewed for a third season, for which filming began in September 2009.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: The third season of the show premiered on June 22, 2010, with a special two-hour "Blind Date" episode preluding the series on June 1. ABC subsequently announced that other themed episodes would appear in Season 3, including episodes featuring ladies only and families. The third-season finale aired on September 14, 2010, with a special "America's Finest Edition", featuring some of America's heroes, including firefighters and policemen.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: On August 15, 2010, ABC announced that the show had been contracted for a fourth season. The announcement added: "Wipeout has the distinction of being the only broadcast reality series launched in recent years that has demonstrated proven staying power." On October 13, 2010, ABC announced plans that the fourth season would be split into three sections – Winter, Spring, and Summer; with a total of 32 episodes: 8 Winter episodes, 7 Spring episodes and 17 Summer episodes. The fourth season premiered on January 6, 2011.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: On June 16, 2011, ABC announced that the show had been renewed for a fifth season, and that Vanessa Lachey would replace co-host Jill Wagner on the show. New episodes of "Winter Wipeout" began on December 8, 2011, with a Christmas special episode, entitled "Winter Wipeout: Deck the Balls". That same year, syndicated reruns of "Wipeout" aired on truTV and TBS. Reruns now air on TBS, TBD and local stations across the U.S.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: On August 29, 2012, "Wipeout" was picked up for a sixth season. In addition, it was announced that former co-host Jill Wagner would be returning to the series after a season-long absence. John Anderson and John Henson also returned as commentators. Vanessa Lachey departed the series due to her impending pregnancy.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: On August 30, 2012, Activision released a Wipeout game for iOS. It quickly became the top-selling app in the App Store.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: For its seventh season winners from each episode were brought together for a "Tournament of Champions" at the end of the season to compete for the title of Ultimate Wipeout Champion. Season seven ended on September 7, 2014.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: Reportedly revamped for an eighth season as "Wipeout Extreme", by the summer of 2015, ABC had quietly canceled the show and removed it from the network website. The series was not renewed for an eighth season.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: In April 2020, it was announced that the series would be returning on TBS. In September 2020, John Cena, Nicole Byer, and Camille Kostek were announced as hosts of the rebooted "Wipeout". It premiered on April 1, 2021. On May 19, 2021, it was announced that the reboot series was renewed for a second season.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: Contestants compete through four rounds of competition until a final winner is determined. The first round features 24 contestants (they were introduced from seasons 1–3, but from season 4 onwards, not all were shown) running through a series of obstacles. The top 12 finishing times move on. The show never made clear to viewers whether or how the finishing times are adjusted for failing to complete obstacles along the way.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: The next two rounds take place on two different complex obstacles. They typically involve large structures that competitors have to enter, navigate around while hostile devices try to knock them off, and then jump to a landing pad to finish, where Jill Wagner awaits them. The competitors keep trying on these structures until roughly half of them have reached the finish; the other half are eliminated. This leaves only the top four (top three in some seasons) to make it to the final round called the Wipeout Zone, where the winner earns the title of Wipeout Champion and a $50,000 grand prize.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: The challenges change each week, but always feature offbeat and comical obstacles, such as the "Sucker Punch", "Big Balls" (the show's trademark obstacle, four very large red spheres in sequence that must be traversed from a running start, with failures often resulting in odd-angle rejections), the "Sweeper", the "Dizzy Dummy" or the "Dreadmill". Emphasis is always placed on obstacles that can produce sudden jarring collisions (the obstacle surfaces are heavily padded and competitors sometimes don helmets or flak jackets) followed by spectacular falls into the water below, these being the show's titular "wipeouts". As part of wiping out, the competitors often end up covered in mud, froth, vats of food, or other unlikely substances.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: In one of the show's trademarks, the commentators have a humorous running commentary, often mocking and insulting the contestants as they compete. The hosts make frequent use of puns. Jokey sound effects and cheesy visual effects are often added as well. The exchanges between the two hosts is often a subplot of episodes themselves, with Anderson playing it mostly straight as a play-by-play man while Henson offers up off-the-wall inanities and non sequiturs as color commentary.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: Jill Wagner offers additional features reactions, and also provides interviews with the contestants filmed before their turn begins. These interviews tend to emphasize bizarre aspects of contestants' personalities, with Wagner making facial commentary as the conversation proceeds. Generally only those who will pass the first round are introduced, and a nickname is assigned that is used throughout the game.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: At night, the show takes an epic and serious turn, with the humor dialed down, and serious background music instead of its lighthearted theme music. The final four or three contestants play separately on a large obstacle course inside the studio called the Wipeout Zone, each attempting to finish the course in the fastest time, much like the first round. Though slight variations are used in each episode, contestants wear wetsuits and they begin by either sliding down a water ramp or being launched by a giant catapult or blob into the course, swimming to the first obstacle. Obstacles have varied between episodes, but the course contains several obstacles that must be traversed in order to reach the finishing platform. The player with the fastest time on the course is declared the "champion" of the episode and is awarded the show's grand prize of $50,000. The Wipeout Zone often brings competitors to the brink of exhaustion, especially when they have to swim back to a starting point to retry a failed obstacle. In Season 7, the Zone was all about speed, and the contestants were given 1 attempt per obstacle.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: On its premiere night, "Wipeout" scored the highest premiere rating of any new show in summer 2008, besting competing veteran summer shows "Hell's Kitchen" and "America's Got Talent". As the season progressed, Nielsen Media Research put it at the top of the 18–49 demographic, slightly outpaced by "America's Got Talent". On August 6, 2008, "Wipeout" was officially renewed for a second season. The second season premiered on May 27, 2009, and with an audience of 9.69 million, "Wipeout" bested its first season average and gave ABC its best numbers in the Wednesday 8:00 p.m. slot since November 2007. The third season premiered on June 22, 2010, with ratings of 10.21 million, with a special "Blind Date" episode getting 12.8 million viewers on June 1, 2010. In 2016, a "New York Times" study of the 50 TV shows with the most Facebook Likes found that "Wipeout" was "most popular in Northern, rural areas with a large percentage of white people: Idaho, Utah, Wisconsin and Maine are all on the top of this show's list".


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: On January 6, 2011, the first season of Winter Wipeout premiered with the series' highest ratings ever, beating the 8pm competition in the coveted 18–49 demographic and many other key demos.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: The concept and style of the show has been compared to several Japanese game shows, most notably "Takeshi's Castle", "Unbeatable Banzuke" and "SASUKE". This was brought to the attention of the Japanese broadcaster Tokyo Broadcasting System, who filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against ABC, charging that "Wipeout" is "a blatant copycat" of several of its classic Japanese competition game shows. Among the charges are that ABC bought search terms such as "MXC" (the Americanized comedy version of "Takeshi's Castle") on Google to help drive traffic to the official "Wipeout" page, and that specific obstacles in "Wipeout" were knock-offs of challenges in those Japanese game shows.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: "Wipeout" creator and executive producer Matt Kunitz, who also executive produced Endemol's "Fear Factor" (NBC), said "Wipeout" is "90% Fear Factor-inspired, 10% Japanese game show", adding in a "Los Angeles Times" interview that "Wipeout" was born from a desire to do a funny stunt series. He reportedly wanted to sell the show as "Fear Factor" meets "America's Funniest Home Videos". The suit was settled in December 2011 through mediation with a federal judge without going to trial.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: There have been eight video games based on "Wipeout". The series was first adapted into "Wipeout: The Game", which was released June 22, 2010 in conjunction with the Season 3 premiere. The game was released on the Wii and Nintendo DS, and was developed by Activision. The game is played in two different versions. Challenge mode is where the player can challenge specific obstacles and attempt to beat them in a certain amount of time. The other is Play The Show, which means to play the game as they would in the show. The Wii game is different from the show (and its Nintendo DS counterpart) in that there are only 4 contestants, and none are eliminated during the first three rounds. The game has commentary by Henson, Anderson and Wagner, all three of whom are featured as unlockable playable characters.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: Another "Wipeout" game was under development by Activision, this time for Xbox 360 with Kinect, entitled 'Wipeout: In The Zone'. It took full advantage of the Kinect remote and has ragdoll wipeouts and different rounds from the Wii and DS version, such as Bruiseball. The game was released "in conjunction with the premier of Wipeout's summer season on ABC" on June 16, 2011. Activision announced on August 18, 2011, that a direct sequel to the first Wipeout game was in development titled "Wipeout 2" for Xbox 360 with Kinect, PlayStation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS. The new game is described as "Offering updated, outrageous course designs across all platforms with obstacles and effects taken straight from the show's summer and winter seasons. Players must navigate around snow, ice, foam, and fan-favorite obstacles like the Sucker Punch Wall and Big Balls; which are making their triumphant returns alongside more than 50 others".


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: It was released on October 11, 2011. Activision announced on June 25, 2013, that a new title called "Wipeout: Create & Crash" would be released on Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Nintendo 3DS on October 15, 2013.


title: Wipeout (2008 game show)

text: Endemol Shine North America has sold the show's format to more than 40 territories and has created two obstacle courses in Argentina for those international editions. Past, current and upcoming versions include:


title: The Archers

text: The Archers is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural setting". Having aired over 19,500 episodes, it is the world's longest-running drama by number of episodes.


title: The Archers

text: Five pilot episodes were aired in 1950, and the first episode was broadcast nationally on New Year's Day 1951. A significant show in British popular culture, and with over five million listeners, it is Radio 4's most listened-to non-news programme, and with over one million listeners via the internet, the programme holds the record for BBC Radio online listening figures. In February 2019, a panel of 46 broadcasting industry experts, of which 42 had a professional connection to the BBC, listed "The Archers" as the second-greatest radio programme of all time. Partly established with the aim towards educating farmers following World War II, "The Archers" soon became a popular source of entertainment for the population at large, attracting nine million listeners by 1953.


title: The Archers

text: "The Archers" is set in the fictional village of Ambridge in the fictional county of Borsetshire, in England. Borsetshire is situated between what are, in reality, the contiguous counties of Worcestershire and Warwickshire, south of Birmingham in The Midlands of England. Ambridge is possibly based on the village of Cutnall Green, though various other villages claim to be the inspiration for Ambridge; "The Bull", Ambridge's pub, is modelled on The Old Bull in Inkberrow, whereas Hanbury's St Mary the Virgin is often used as a stand-in for Ambridge's parish church, St Stephen's.


title: The Archers

text: Other fictional villages include Penny Hassett, Loxley Barrett, Darrington, Hollerton, Edgeley, Waterley Cross and Lakey Green. The county town of Borsetshire is Borchester, and the nearest big city is the cathedral city of Felpersham. Felpersham also has a university. Anywhere further from Ambridge may be referred to humorously with comments such as "that's on the other side of Felpersham!", but characters do occasionally venture further: several attended the Countryside Alliance march in London, there have been references to the gay scene in Manchester's Canal Street. There have been scenes set in other places in the United Kingdom and abroad, with some characters residing overseas such as in South Africa and Hungary.


title: The Archers

text: Since Easter Sunday 1998, there have been six episodes a week, from Sunday to Friday, broadcast at around 19:03 following the news summary. All except the Friday evening episode are repeated the following day at 14:02. The six episodes are re-run unabridged in the Sunday morning omnibus at 10:00. On Remembrance Sunday, the omnibus edition begins at the earlier time of 09:15.


title: The Archers

text: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, weekly programming reduced to four episodes, omitting episodes on Sunday and Friday. The Sunday omnibus was correspondingly reduced in length. After continuing with pre-recorded episodes and repeating some classic episodes, new episodes started that had been recorded remotely, to a mixed reception. On 15 August 2021, the Sunday evening episode resumed regular broadcast, as did the Friday evening episode on 3 June 2022.


title: The Archers

text: Unlike some soap operas, episodes of "The Archers" portray events taking place on the date of broadcast, allowing many topical subjects to be included. Real-life events which can be readily predicted are often written into the script, such as the annual Oxford Farming Conference and the FIFA World Cup. On some occasions, scenes recorded at these events are planned and edited into episodes shortly before transmission.


title: The Archers

text: More challengingly for the production team, some significant but unforeseen events require scenes to be rewritten and rerecorded at short notice, such as the death of Princess Margaret (particularly poignant because she had appeared as herself on the programme), the World Trade Center attacks, and the 7 July 2005 London bombings. The events and implications of the 2001 foot-and-mouth crisis required many "topical inserts" and the rewriting of several storylines.


title: The Archers

text: In January 2012, Oliver Sterling, owner of Grange Farm, together with his tenant, Ed Grundy, elected to vaccinate the badgers on their farm in an attempt to prevent the spread of bovine tuberculosis. The plotline came within weeks of the government confirming a badger cull trial.


title: The Archers

text: It was announced on 29 March 2020 that the programme would include reference to the COVID-19 pandemic from 4 May onwards.


title: The Archers

text: The death of Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September 2022 was discussed by Lynda Snell and Lilian Bellamy as the first section of the episode broadcast on Sunday 11 September.


title: The Archers

text: "The Archers" actors are not held on retainers and usually work on episodes for a few days a month. By the nature of the storylines concentrating on particular groups of characters, in any one week out of a cast of about 60, the episodes include approximately 2030 speaking-characters. Most of the cast do acting work on other projects and can disappear for long periods if they are working on commitments such as films or television series. Tamsin Greig plays Debbie Aldridge and has appeared on many television series such as "Green Wing", "Love Soup", "Black Books" and "Episodes", so Debbie manages a farm in Hungary and her visits to Ambridge are infrequent. Felicity Jones played Emma Carter from the age of 15 but after a period of studying at Wadham College, Oxford, she gave up the role to move into television and cinema.


title: The Archers

text: Some of the actors, when not playing their characters, earn their money through different jobs altogether: Charlotte Connor, when not playing Susan Carter (credited as Charlotte Martin), works full-time as a senior research psychologist at the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation; her office is a short walk from BBC Birmingham, and thus she is able to fit her work around recordings. Meanwhile, Graham Blockey, who plays Robert Snell, worked until 2017 as a full-time general practitioner in Surrey, commuting to and from BBC Birmingham at weekends and on his days off. He kept his role secret from his patients, for fear of losing their respect, until his retirement from medicine in March 2017. Other examples include Felicity Finch (Ruth Archer), who also works as a BBC journalist having travelled on a number of occasions to Afghanistan; and Ian Pepperell (Roy Tucker), who manages a pub in the New Forest.


title: The Archers

text: A five-episode pilot series started on Whit Monday, 29 May 1950, and continued throughout that week. It was created by Godfrey Baseley and was broadcast to the English Midlands in the Regional Home Service, as 'a farming Dick Barton'. Recordings were sent to London, and the BBC decided to commission the series for a longer national run. In the five pilots the Archers owned Wimberton Farm, rather than Brookfield. Baseley subsequently edited "The Archers" for 22 years.


title: The Archers

text: Since 1 January 1951, five 15-minute episodes (since 1998, six 12½-minute episodes) have been transmitted each week, at first on the BBC Light Programme and subsequently on the BBC Home Service (and Radio 4 from 1 October 1967). Early afternoon repeats of the previous evening's episode began on 14 December 1964. The original scriptwriters were Geoffrey Webb and Edward J. Mason, who were also working on the nightly thriller series about the special agent Dick Barton. The popularity of his adventures partly inspired "The Archers", which eventually took over Barton's evening slot. At first, however, the national launch placed the serial at the "terrible" time of 11.45 am, but it moved to Dick Barton's former slot of 6.45 pm from 2 April 1951. An omnibus edition of the week's episodes began on 5 January 1952.


title: The Archers

text: Originally produced with collaborative input from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, "The Archers" was conceived as a means of disseminating information to farmers and smallholders to help increase productivity in the Postwar era of rationing and food shortages.


title: The Archers

text: "The Archers" originally centred on the lives of three farmers; Dan Archer, farming efficiently with little cash, Walter Gabriel, farming inefficiently with little cash, and George Fairbrother, a wealthy businessman farming at a loss for tax purposes (which one could do in those days). The programme was hugely successful, winning the National Radio Awards' 'Most entertaining programme of the Year' award jointly with "Take It from Here" in 1954, and winning the award outright in 1955, in which year the audience was reported to have peaked at 20 million.


title: The Archers

text: In the late 1950s, despite the growth of television and radio's consequent decline, the programme was still claiming 11 million listeners and was also being transmitted in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. By the mid-1970s, however, the audience for the two daily broadcasts and the weekend omnibus combined was less than three million and in 1976 the BBC Radio Four Review Board twice considered whether or not to axe the programme. The serial's woes at this time were seen to mirror the poor standing of radio drama in general, described as "a failure to fully shake off the conventions of non-realism which had prevailed in the 1940s and 1950s."


title: The Archers

text: Programme chief Jock Gallagher, responsible for "The Archers", described these as the serial's "dog days". Sweeping editorial reforms followed, included the introduction of women writers (there had been none before 1975), two of whom, Helen Leadbeater and Margaret Phelan, were credited with giving the programme a new definitive style of writing and content, although some listeners complained about their radical feminism.


title: The Archers

text: In 1980 Julie Burchill commented that the women of Ambridge were no longer stuck with "the gallons of greengage jam old-guard male scriptwriters kept them occupied with for over twenty years"; but were 'into post-natal depression and alcoholism on the way to self-discovery'. By the mid-1980s the Radio Four Review Board noted that scripts, directing and acting was "very good" and sometimes "better than ever". In August 1985 "The Listener" said that the programme's revival was "sustained by some of the best acting, direction and writing on radio."


title: The Archers

text: Tony Shryane MBE was the programme's producer from 1 January 1951 to 19 January 1979. Vanessa Whitburn was the programme's editor from 1992 till 2013. Whitburn took service leave from March to July 2012, and John Yorke, a former executive producer of "EastEnders", came in as acting editor. Yorke's arrival prompted charges that the programme was importing the values of "EastEnders" to Borsetshire, with fans and commentators complaining that characters were behaving unrealistically simply to generate conflict. This was denied by Yorke, who wrote that he agreed to take over "on one condition – that it stayed exactly as it was and that I didn't have to change anything."


title: The Archers

text: Whitburn was succeeded as editor by Sean O'Connor in September 2013. In September 2016, Huw Kennair-Jones took over as editor though O'Connor continued to oversee the Helen and Rob storyline until its conclusion. Kennair-Jones announced in October 2017 that he was to leave the BBC to work as commissioning editor for ITV. The short tenure of two successive Archers editors led to concerns of a trend of radio drama editing being seen as "training ground" for higher-paid positions in TV. Alison Hindell, the BBC's head of Audio Drama until October 2018, took over as acting editor before and after Kennair-Jones's time in charge. She effectively swapped roles with Jeremy Howe when she succeeded him as the BBC's commissioning editor for drama and fiction and he started as editor of the Archers in late August 2018.


title: The Archers

text: One of the most controversial "Archers" episodes was broadcast on 22 September 1955, coinciding with the launch of the UK's first commercial television station. Phil and Grace Archer had been married just a few months earlier, and their blossoming relationship was the talk of the nation. However, searching for a story which would demonstrate real tragedy among increasingly unconvincing episode cliff-hangers, Godfrey Baseley decided that Grace would have to die. The scripts for the week commencing 19 September 1955 were written, recorded, and broadcast on each day, with an "exercise in topicality" given as the explanation to the cast. On Thursday, listeners heard the sound effects of Grace trying to rescue Midnight, her horse, from a fire in the stable at Brookfield and the crash of a falling timber beam.


title: The Archers

text: Whether the timing of the episode was a deliberate attempt to overshadow the opening night of the BBC's first commercial rival has been debated ever since. It was certainly planned some months in advance, but it may well be that the actual date of the death was changed during the scriptwriting stage to coincide with the launch of Associated-Rediffusion. Deliberate or not, the episode attracted widespread media attention, reported by newspapers around the world.


title: The Archers

text: This controversy has been parodied twice: in "The Bowmans", an episode of the television comedy programme "Hancock", and in the play "The Killing of Sister George" and its 1968 film adaptation. On the 50th anniversary of ITV's launch, Ysanne Churchman, who played Grace, sent them a congratulatory card signed "Grace Archer".


title: The Archers

text: In 1996, William Smethurst recounted a conversation with Baseley in which he reveals his real motivation for killing off Grace Archer: Churchman had been encouraging the other actors to join a trade union.


title: The Archers

text: The actor Norman Painting played Phil Archer continuously from the first trial series in 1950 until his death on 29 October 2009. His last "Archers" performance was recorded just two days before his death, and was broadcast on 22 November. He is cited in "Guinness World Records" as the longest-serving actor in a single soap opera. Under the pseudonym "Bruno Milna", Painting also wrote around 1,200 complete episodes, which culminated in the 10,000th episode.


title: The Archers

text: June Spencer CBE, who celebrated her 100th birthday in 2019, played Peggy Woolley in the pilot episode and continued in the role until 2022.


title: The Archers

text: The Archers reached its 60th anniversary on 1 January 2011 and to mark this achievement, a special half-hour episode was broadcast on Sunday, 2 January, on BBC Radio 4 from 7pm. The episode had been advertised as containing events that would "shake Ambridge to the core". This phrase even gave rise to the initialism #SATTC trending on the website Twitter during that weekend as listeners speculated about what might happen, and then reported their views as the story unfolded.


title: The Archers

text: The main events in the episode were Helen Archer giving birth to her son Henry and Nigel Pargetter falling to his death from the roof of Lower Loxley Hall. This unlikely event provoked interest in the frequency and causes of death in the series. In fact, although the incidence of accidental death and suicide is seven times the national average, the overall mortality rate in Ambridge is almost exactly what would be expected.


title: The Archers

text: The demise of Nigel caused controversy among some listeners, with a number of complaints variously expressing dismay at the death of a popular character, concerns over the manner of the dismissal of the actor, belief that the promise to "shake Ambridge to the core" had been over-hyped, criticism of the credibility of the script (for example, the duration of his plummeting cry caused calculation of the building's height at considerably more than had been imagined); also a perceived unwillingness of the editorial team to engage with these listener complaints.


title: The Archers

text: Topical subjects have been added to the script, but this was not possible during the COVID-19 pandemic. Actors were initially recorded in their homes and included references to the pandemic from some of the characters sharing their private thoughts with the listener. From 4 May 2020 to 14 August 2021, the broadcast was reduced to four episodes (Monday - Thursday). Sunday episodes resumed on 15 August 2021.


title: The Archers

text: The Archers has been broadcast in countries outside the UK, in particular in New Zealand from inception until September 1982, when Radio New Zealand decided not to continue purchasing episodes. Arrangements were made for a special episode without the usual closing cliffhanger.


title: The Archers

text: The programme has tackled many serious, contemporary social issues: rural drug addiction; rape, including rape in marriage; inter-racial relationships; direct action against genetically modified crops and badger culling; family break-ups; and civil partnerships, and a family being threatened by a gang of farm thieves. There has been criticism from conservative commentators, such as Peter Hitchens in 1999 that the series has become a vehicle for liberal and left-wing values and agendas, with characters behaving out of character to achieve those goals. However, one of the show's charms is to make much out of everyday, small concerns, such as the possible closure of the village shop, the loss and rediscovery of a pair of spectacles, competitive marmalade-making, or nonsense such as a 'spile troshing' competition, rather than the large-scale and improbable events that form the plots of many soap operas. Godfrey Baseley was quoted in "The Independent" as objecting to the homosexuality in the programme, saying "It is disgusting ... It is distasteful because being gay is such a minority interest. Country folk don't do that kind of thing. They have sex the proper way."


title: The Archers

text: According to some of the actors, and confirmed in the writings of Godfrey Baseley, in its early days the show was used as a conduit for educational announcements from the Ministry of Agriculture, one actor reading an announcement almost verbatim to another. Direct involvement of the government ended in 1972. The show has reacted within a day to agricultural emergencies such as outbreaks of foot and mouth disease which affect farmers nationwide when livestock movements are restricted.


title: The Archers

text: The theme tune of "The Archers" is called "Barwick Green" and is a maypole dance from the suite "My Native Heath", written in 1924 by the Yorkshire composer Arthur Wood. The Sunday omnibus broadcast of "The Archers" starts with a more rustic, accordion-arranged rendition by The Yetties. The theme for BBC Radio 4 Extra's "The Archers" spinoff, "Ambridge Extra", is a version arranged by Bellowhead.


title: The Archers

text: A library music recording of Barwick Green was used for the pilot and during the early years of the national version, because a bid by Godfrey Baseley to have a special theme composed had been turned down on the grounds of cost, put at £250–£300. However, once the serial had become undeniably established, a new recording of Barwick Green was authorised and performed by the BBC Midland Light Orchestra on 24 March 1954. This mono recording was also accompanied by four movements entitled "A Village Suite", composed by Kenneth Pakeman to complement Barwick Green. Excerpts from these movements were then used for a time as bridging music between scenes. The 1954 recordings were never made available to the public and their use was restricted even inside the BBC, partly because of an agreement with the Musicians' Union.


title: The Archers

text: In 1992, the theme was re-recorded in stereo, retaining the previous arrangements. The venue was Symphony Hall in Birmingham, the conductor Ron Goodwin, producer David Welsby and the sound mixer Norman McLeod. The slightly different sound mixing and more leisurely tempo reportedly led some listeners to consider the new version inferior, specifically that it lacked "brio", although the BBC publicised the fact that the orchestra contained some of the musicians who had played in the previous recording, including Harold Rich (piano) and Norman Parker (percussion).


title: The Archers

text: Robert Robinson once compared the tune to "the genteel abandon of a lifelong teetotaller who has suddenly taken to drink". On April Fool's Day 2004 both "The Independent" and "The Today Programme" claimed that BBC executives had commissioned composer Brian Eno to record an electronic version of "Barwick Green" as a replacement for the current theme, while comedian Billy Connolly included in his act the joke that the theme was so typically British that it should be the national anthem of the United Kingdom.


title: The Archers

text: In 2009, comedian Rainer Hersch conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra in a performance of the theme, live from the Royal Festival Hall to a listening BBC Radio 3 audience in an attempt to confuse them. He then went on to show how similar it is to "Montagues and Capulets" – "Dance of the Knights" – from "Romeo and Juliet" by Sergei Prokofiev, claiming that this was a result of Russian spies going through the BBC's rubbish bins looking for the scripts.


title: The Archers

text: At times, a cliffhanger involving the death of a major character or a disaster was marked by the traditional closing theme being replaced by the final dramatic section of "Barwick Green" involving trombones, cymbals and the closing bars of the signature tune – known as the "doom music" to some fan groups. This tradition has been dropped more recently, with events such as the death of Nigel Pargetter being followed by the normal closing music despite the gravity of the incident. This has irritated some followers, who consider the jollity of the normal segment inappropriate in such circumstances.


title: The Archers

text: A brief extract from "The Dream of Gerontius" was played following the death of Phil Archer. When John Archer died no music was played.


title: The Archers

text: There was a nod to "The Archers" in in London on 27 July 2012, where the theme tune was played at the beginning of a segment celebrating British culture: the sound of a radio could be heard being tuned in as "Barwick Green" was played.


title: The Archers

text: BBC Radio 4 Extra ran an occasional short supplement, "Ambridge Extra", between 2011 and 2013, featuring characters away from the Ambridge environs. Series 1 and 2 had 26 episodes and series 3, 4 and 5 had 20. The reason offered for non-renewal was limited resources.


title: The Archers

text: Two organisations dedicated to the programme were established in the 1990s. Archers Addicts was the official body, run by members of the cast. The club had five thousand members and an online shop where Archers memorabilia was sold under licence. It closed as a club on 31 December 2013 but still has a Facebook page and Twitter feed. Archers Anarchists was formed sometime later, objecting to the "castist" assumptions propagated by the BBC, and claiming that the characters are real.


title: The Archers

text: The usenet newsgroup uk.media.radio.archers (referred to as UMRA by its users, who call themselves umrats) has been running since 1995. Its users include experts on subjects covered by the programme, such as the many aspects of farming, the running of small businesses, bell ringing; lengthy discussions ensue – as well as light-hearted matters, and plot speculation. Various gatherings occur where umrats come together. The first was a series of about ten annual barbecues. The first was attended by Carole Boyd (Lynda Snell). They have included participants from Europe and the Americas. It has nicknames for many of the main Archers characters, such as S'aint for Shula. (There are nicknames for most of the regular characters.) Due perhaps to it being initially more accessible in academia, the discussions can be quite detailed, though UMRA considers itself to be a friendly and welcoming group, where in particular flamewars and the like are not welcome. Despite the general decline of usenet with the advent of trendier media such as Facebook and Twitter, UMRA remains a very active newsgroup compared to many. Its one-time T-shirts and mugs bore the legend (in yellow on "Barwick Green", of course) "An everyday story of internet folk."


title: The Archers

text: The Academic Archers, founded in 2016, is a community of fans who share an academic approach to the programme. It organises an annual conference at which papers are presented which draw on academic expertise along with enjoyment. Papers from these have been published as "The Archers in Fact and Fiction: Academic Analyses of Life in Rural Borsetshire" (2016, Peter Lang:), "Custard, Culverts and Cake" (2017, Emerald: and "Gender, Sex and Gossip: Women in The Archers" (2019, Emerald: ) The group aims to be "curious, generous and joyful".


title: The Archers

text: Dum Tee Dum is a weekly podcast about the Archers that features Roifield Brown. Released every Sunday it features a comprehensive rundown on the last week's Ambridge action. By February 2021 they had podcasted 368 episodes. As well as a webpage, Dumteedum has a Facebook Group with 1300 members, a Twitter feed, 8874 followers and a map of members. There are two other Archers podcasts, both released on a Sunday weekly - The Cider Shed, and Ambridge on the Couch with Lucy Freeman and Harriet Carmichael. They both have facebook, twitter and other social media sites. Every Sunday there is a ‘tweet along’ with the omnibus episode during which listeners comment live on the show.


title: The Archers

text: In 1994, the BBC World Service began broadcasting in Afghanistan "Naway Kor, Naway Jwand" ("New Home, New Life") an everyday story of country folk incorporating pieces of useful information. Although the useful information was more likely to concern unexploded land mines and opium addiction than the latest modern farming techniques, the inspiration and model of "Naway Kor, Naway Jwand" was "The Archers", and the initial workshopping with Afghan writers included an "Archers" scriptwriter. A 1997 study found that listeners to the soap opera were significantly less likely to be injured by a mine than non-listeners.


title: The Archers

text: In Rwanda, the BBC World Service's Rwanda-Rundi service has been broadcasting the Archers-inspired soap opera "Urunana" ("Hand in Hand") since 1999.


title: The Archers

text: "The Archers" was the model for the Russian radio soap opera "Dom 7, Podyezd 4" ("House 7, Entrance 4"), on which the former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, once made a cameo appearance.


title: The Archers

text: Tony Hancock starred in the Galton and Simpson spoof "The Bowmans" in an episode of BBC Television's "Hancock's Half Hour".


title: The Archers

text: Ned Sherrin produced a short 1973 film called "The Cobblers of Umbridge". The cast included Joan Sims, Lance Percival, Roy Kinnear, Derek Griffiths and John Fortune.


title: The Archers

text: "John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme" has parodied "The Archers" with its recurring "The Archers Accidentally" sketches; the sketches claim to portray "The Archers" the way it sounds to people who only listen to the show inadvertently.


title: The Archers

text: The radio series of "Dead Ringers" has frequently parodied characters from "The Archers", including a special edition.


title: The Archers

text: The subtitle was parodied by Bill Tidy in his long-running cartoon of "The Cloggies", "an Everyday Saga in the Life of Clog Dancing Folk", which ran in the satirical magazine "Private Eye", and later in "The Listener".


title: The Archers

text: An episode of "Arena", broadcast on BBC Four on 1 January 2007, focused on "The Archers". It was narrated by Stephen Fry and included interviews with current actors and scriptwriters.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: The golden age of American animation was a period in the history of U.S. animation that began with the popularization of sound cartoons in 1928 and gradually ended in the late 1960s, where theatrical animated shorts began losing popularity to the newer medium of television animation, produced on cheaper budgets and in a more limited animation style by companies such as Hanna-Barbera, UPA, Jay Ward Productions, and DePatie-Freleng.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Many popular characters emerged from this period, including Disney's' "Mickey Mouse", "Minnie Mouse", "Donald Duck", "Daisy Duck", "Goofy", and "Pluto"; Warner Bros.' "Bugs Bunny", "Daffy Duck", "Porky Pig", "Tweety", and "Sylvester"; MGM's "Tom and Jerry" and "Droopy"; Fleischer Studios' "Betty Boop"; "Felix the Cat"; Walter Lantz's "Woody Woodpecker"; Terrytoons' "Mighty Mouse"; UPA's "Mr. Magoo"; and Jay Ward Productions' "Rocky and Bullwinkle".


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Feature-length animation began during this period, most notably with Disney's "Walt-era" films, spanning from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in 1937 to "The Jungle Book" in 1967. Animation also began on television during this period, with the first animated series airing on television in 1948 starting with "Crusader Rabbit".


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Walt Disney had decided to become a newspaper cartoonist drawing political caricatures and comic strips. However, nobody would hire Disney, so his older brother Roy, who was working as a banker at the time, got him a job at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio where he created advertisements for newspapers, magazines, and movie theaters. Here he met fellow cartoonist Ub Iwerks, the two quickly became friends and in January 1920, when their time at the studio expired they decided to open up their own advertising agency together called Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists. The business however got off to a rough start and Walt temporarily left for the Kansas City Film and Ad Co. to raise money for the fleeting company and Iwerks soon followed as he was unable to run the business alone.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: While working there he made commercials for local theaters using crude cut-out animation. Disney became fascinated by the art and decided to become an animator. He then borrowed a camera from work and rented a book from the local library called "Animated Cartoons: How They Are Made, Their Origin and Development" by Edwin G. Lutz and decided that cel animation would produce better quality and decided to open up his own animation studio. Disney then teamed up with Fred Harman and made their first film, "The Little Artist" which was nothing more than an artist (Disney) taking a cigarette break at his work desk. Harman soon dropped out of the venture, but Disney was able to strike a deal with local theater owner Frank L. Newman and animated a cartoon all by himself entitled "Newman Laugh-O-Grams" screened in roughly February 1921. Walt then quit his job at the film and ad company and incorporated Laugh-O-Gram Films in May 1922, and hired former advertising colleagues as unpaid "students" of animation including Ub Iwerks and Fred Harman's brother, Hugh Harman.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Throughout 1922, the Disney company produced a series of "modernized" adaptations of fairy tales including "Little Red Riding Hood", "The Four Musicians of Bremen", "Jack and the Beanstalk", "Jack the Giant Killer", "Goldielocks and the Three Bears", "Puss in Boots", "Cinderella" and "Tommy Tucker's Tooth", the latter being mostly a live-action film about dental hygiene. None of these films turned a profit. The last film made by the Disney company was a short called "Alice's Wonderland". Loosely inspired by Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"; the short featured a live-action five-year-old girl named Alice (Virginia Davis) who had adventures in a fully animated world. The film was never fully complete however as the studio went bankrupt in the summer of 1923.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Upon the closure of Laugh-O-Grams, Walt Disney worked as a freelance filmmaker before selling his camera for a one-way ticket to Los Angeles. Once arriving he moved in with his Uncle Robert and his brother Roy, who was recovering at a nearby government hospital from tuberculosis he had suffered during the war. After failing to get a job as a director of live-action films he sent the unfinished "Alice's Wonderland" reel to short-subjects distributor Margaret J. Winkler of "Winkler Pictures" in New York. Winkler was distributing both the "Felix the Cat" and "Out of the Inkwell" cartoons at the time, but the Fleischer brothers were about to leave to set up their own distribution company, "Red Seal Films", and Felix producer Pat Sullivan was constantly fighting with Winkler; therefore Winkler agreed to distribute Disney's "Alice Comedies" as sort of an insurance policy.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Once Walt Disney received the notice on October 15, he convinced Roy to leave the hospital and help him set up his business. The next day, on October 16, 1923, Disney Bros. Cartoon Studio opened its doors at a small rented office two blocks away from his uncle's house with Roy managing business and Walt handling creative affairs. He convinced Virginia Davis's parents which caused the first official "Alice" short, "Alice's Day at Sea", to be released on January 1, 1924; delayed by eleven days. Ub Iwerks was re-hired in February 1925 and the quality of animation on the "Alice" series improved; this prompted Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Carman Maxwell to follow Disney west in June 1925. Around that time, Davis was replaced with Maggie Gay and the cartoons started to focus less on the live-action scenes and more the fully animated scenes, particularly those featuring Alice's pet sidekick Julius, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Felix the Cat. In February 1926, Disney built a larger studio at 2719 Hyperion Avenue and changed the name of the company to Walt Disney Cartoons.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In November 1923, Winkler married Charles Mintz and handed over the business to him when she became pregnant a few months later. Mintz was often described as a cold, stern and ruthless chain-smoking tyrant; one employee remembered him as "a grim-faced man, with a pair of cold eyes glittering behind the pince nez" and "never talked to the staff. He looked us over like an admiral surveying a row of stanchions." While Winkler had offered gentle critiques and encouragement, Mintz communicated to Disney in a harsh and cruel tone. In 1927, Mintz ordered Disney to stop producing "Alice Comedies" due to the costs of combining live-action and animation.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Mintz managed to gain a distribution deal with Universal Studios; however it was Mintz—not Disney—that signed the deal. Disney and lead animator Ub Iwerks created "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit", who debuted in "Trolley Troubles" short in 1927. The Oswald series was a success and became the first hit for the Walt Disney studio.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In the spring of 1928, Disney travelled to New York to ask Mintz for a budget increase. His request was harshly denied by Mintz, who pointed out that in the contract Mintz had signed with Universal, it was Universal—not Disney—that owned the rights to the character. Mintz revealed to Disney that he had hired most of his staff away from the studio (except for Ub Iwerks, Les Clark and Wilfred Jackson who refused to leave) and threatened that unless he took a 20 per cent budget decrease, he would drop Disney and continue the Oswald series by himself. Walt refused, and Winkler Pictures dropped its distribution.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: While Disney was finishing the remaining cartoons for Mintz, Disney and his staff secretly came up with a new cartoon character to replace Oswald — "Mickey Mouse".


title: Golden age of American animation

text: The inspiration for Mickey has never been clear. Walt Disney said that he came up with the idea on the train ride back to Los Angeles shortly after the confrontation with Mintz, but other records say that he came up with the idea after he returned to the studio. Walt Disney once said that he was inspired by a pet mouse he once had at the old Laugh-O-Grams studio, but more commonly said that he chose a mouse because a mouse had never been the central character of a cartoon series before.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1928, "Plane Crazy" became the first entry into the Mickey Mouse series; however, it was not released because of a poor reaction from test screenings and failed to gain a distributor. The second Mickey Mouse cartoon "The Gallopin' Gaucho" also failed to gain the attention of the audience and a distributor. Disney knew what was missing: sound. Sound film had been captivating audiences since 1927 with "The Jazz Singer" and Walt decided that the next cartoon "Steamboat Willie" would have sound. "Steamboat Willie" was not the first sound cartoon, Max and Dave Fleischer had produced "Song Car-Tunes" since 1926. However, they failed to keep the sound synchronized with the animation and the main focus of the cartoons were the bouncing ball sing-a-longs. The "Song Car-Tunes" were not a success and some staff members doubted whether a cartoon with sound would be successful. So Disney arranged a special preview screening with the music and sound effects being played live behind stage through a microphone. The "Steamboat Willie" test screening was a success and managed to gain a distributor, "Celebrity Pictures" chief Pat Powers. However, the first attempt to synchronize the sound with the animation was a disaster with the timing being all wrong. In order to finance the second recording, Walt sold his car. This time he used a click track to keep his musicians on the beat (Disney later learned that it was easier to record the dialogue, music and sound effects first and animate to the sound). Little more than a month before "Steamboat Willie"'s premiere, Paul Terry released his sound cartoon "Dinner Time"; however it was not a financial success and Walt Disney described it as "a bunch of racket".


title: Golden age of American animation

text: "Steamboat Willie" was released on November 18, 1928, and was a big success. Disney quickly gained huge dominance in the animation field using sound in his future cartoons by dubbing "Plane Crazy", "The Gallopin' Gaucho" and the nearly completed "The Barn Dance". Mickey Mouse's popularity put the animated character into the ranks of the most popular screen personalities in the world. Disney's biggest competitor, Pat Sullivan with his "Felix the Cat", was eclipsed by Mickey's popularity and the studio closed in 1932.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Merchandising based on Disney cartoons rescued a number of companies from bankruptcy during the depths of the Depression, and Disney took advantage of this popularity to move forward with further innovations in animation.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1929, he launched a new series entitled the "Silly Symphonies" which was based around music with no recurring characters. However, they did not become as popular as the Mickey Mouse cartoon series.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1930, after a falling-out with Powers, Disney switched distributors to Columbia Pictures. However, Ub Iwerks left Walt Disney after an offer from Powers to be in charge of his own studio.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1932, Mickey Mouse had become an international sensation, but the "Silly Symphonies" had not. Columbia Pictures had backed out of its distribution of the series and Disney was lured to move the "Silly Symphonies" into United Artists by a budget increase.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Walt Disney then worked with the Technicolor company to create the first full three-strip color cartoon, "Flowers and Trees". Another great success, it became the first cartoon to win the Academy Award for the Best Animated Short Film. Shortly afterward, Disney negotiated an exclusive, but temporary deal with Technicolor so only he could use the three-strip process in animated films—no other studio was permitted to use it. However, he withheld making Mickey Mouse in color because he thought that Technicolor might boost the "Silly Symphonies"' popularity.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: By 1932, Walt Disney had realized the success of animated films depended upon telling emotionally gripping stories that would grab the audience and not let go. This realization led to an important innovation around 1932–1933: a "story department", separate from the animators, with storyboard artists who would be dedicated to working on a "story development" phase of the production pipeline.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In turn, Disney's continued emphasis on story development and characterization resulted in another hit in 1933: "Three Little Pigs", which is seen as the first cartoon in which multiple characters displayed unique, individual personalities and is still considered to be the most successful animated short of all time, and also featured the hit song that became the anthem in fighting the Great Depression: "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf".


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In the Mickey Mouse series, he continued to add personality to his characters; this resulted in the creation of new characters such as Pluto with "The Chain Gang" in 1930, Goofy with "Mickey's Revue" in 1932 and Donald Duck in 1934 with "The Wise Little Hen" (under the "Silly Symphony" series). When Disney's contract with Technicolor expired, the Mickey Mouse series was moved into Technicolor starting with "The Band Concert" in 1935. In addition, Mickey was partially redesigned for Technicolor later that year.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1937, Disney invented the multiplane camera, which gave an illusion of depth to the animated world. He first used this on the Academy Award-winning "Silly Symphony" cartoon "The Old Mill". Much of Disney's work was heavily influenced by European stories and myths, and the work of illustrators such as Doré and Busch.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Also in 1937, Disney changed distributors for the "Silly Symphonies" to RKO Radio Pictures, remaining with this distributor until the early 1950s, when they were re-issued and re-released by Disney's new distribution company, Buena Vista Distribution.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1937, Walt Disney produced "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", the first American feature-length animated musical fantasy film. This was the culmination of four years of effort by Disney studios. Walt Disney was convinced that short cartoons would not keep his studio profitable in the long run, so he took what was seen as an enormous gamble. The critics predicted that "Snow White" would result in financial ruin for the studio. They said that the colors would be too bright for the audience and they would get sick of the gags and leave. However, the critics were proven wrong. "Snow White" was a worldwide box office success, and was universally acclaimed as a landmark in the development of animation as a serious art form.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: After the success of "Snow White", Disney went on to produce "Pinocchio", which was released in 1940. However, costing twice as much to make as "Snow White", "Pinocchio" was not a financial success, since World War II (which began in Europe in 1939) had cut off 40% of Disney's foreign release market . Although it was a moderate success in the United States, the domestic gross alone was not enough to make back its production budget. However, the film did receive very positive reviews and has made millions from subsequent re-releases.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Later that year, Disney produced "Fantasia". It originally started with the Mickey Mouse cartoon "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" in an attempt to recapture Mickey's popularity, which had sharply declined due to the popularity of Max Fleischer's "Popeye" and Disney's "Donald Duck". In the "Sorcerer's Apprentice", Mickey Mouse was redesigned by Fred Moore. This redesign of Mickey is still in use today. The short featured no dialogue, only music which was conducted by Leopold Stokowski. When the budget for the short grew very expensive, Stokowski suggested to Disney that it could be a feature film with other pieces of classical music matched to animation. Disney agreed and production started. "Fantasia" would also become the first commercial film to be released in stereophonic sound. However, like "Pinocchio", "Fantasia" was not a financial success. "Fantasia" was also the first Disney film not to be received well, receiving mixed reviews from the critics. It was looked down upon by music critics and audiences, who felt that Walt Disney was striving for something beyond his reach by trying to introduce mainstream animation to abstract art, classical music, and "elite" subjects. However, the film would be reevaluated in later years and considered a animated masterpiece.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1941, in order to compensate for the relative poor box office of "Pinocchio" and "Fantasia", Disney produced a low-budget feature film, "Dumbo". Just a few days after rough animation was complete on "Dumbo", the Disney animators' strike broke out. This was caused by the Screen Cartoonist's Guild (which had been formed in 1938), who severed many ties between Walt Disney and his staff, while encouraging many members of the Disney studio to leave and seek greener pastures. Later that year, "Dumbo" became a big success, the first for Disney since "Snow White". The critically acclaimed film brought in much-needed revenue and kept the studio afloat. A few months after "Dumbo" was released in 1941, the United States entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor. This led to the mobilization of all movie studios (including their cartoon divisions) to produce propaganda material to bolster public confidence and encourage support for the war effort.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: The war (along with the strike) shook Walt Disney's empire, as the US Army had seized Disney's studio as soon as the US entered World War II in December 1941. As a result, Disney put the feature films "Alice in Wonderland" (1951), "Peter Pan" (1953), "Qind in the Willows" (1949), "Song of the South" (1946), "Mickey and the Beanstalk" (1947) and "Bongo" (1947) on hold until the war was over.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: The only feature film that was allowed to continue production was "Bambi", which was released in 1942. "Bambi" was groundbreaking in terms of animating animals realistically. However, due to the war, "Bambi" failed at the box-office and received mixed reviews from the critics. This failure was to be short-lived as it grossed a considerable amount of money in the 1947 re-release.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Disney was now fully committed to the war effort and contributed by producing propaganda shorts and a feature film entitled "Victory Through Air Power". "Victory Through Air Power" did poorly at the box office and the studio lost around $500,000 as a result. The required propaganda cartoon shorts were less popular than Disney's regular shorts, and by the time the Army ended its stay at Walt Disney Studios with the end of the war in 1945, Disney struggled to restart his studio, and had a low amount of cash on hand.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Further Disney feature films of the 1940s were modestly budgeted collections of animated short segments put together to make a feature film. These began with "Saludos Amigos" in 1942 and continued during the war with "The Three Caballeros" in 1944 and after the war with "Make Mine Music" in 1946, "Fun and Fancy Free" in 1947, "Melody Time" in 1948, and "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" in 1949. For the feature films "Mickey and the Beanstalk", "Bongo", and "Wind in the Willows", he condensed them into the package films "Fun and Fancy Free" and "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" since Walt feared that the low-budget animation would not become profitable.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: The most ambitious Disney film of this period was the 1946 film "Song of the South", a musical film blending live-action and animation which drew criticism in later years for accusations of racial stereotyping.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1950, Disney produced "Cinderella". "Cinderella" was an enormous success, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1950, and became Disney's most successful film since "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and Disney's first single-narrative feature film to be entirely animated since "Bambi", as films in the interim involved some live-action.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Disney's company started to diversify, producing live-action feature films beginning with "Treasure Island" (1950) and nature documentaries, the first of which being "Seal Island" (1948). As a result, Walt Disney was needed on several different units at one time and was spending less time on animation. In 1951, he released "Alice in Wonderland", a project he had been working on since the late 1930s, though it was shelved during the war. "Alice in Wonderland" was initially moderately successful and received mixed reviews from the critics. A few decades later, the film would be hailed as one of Disney's greatest classics, making millions in subsequent theatrical and home video releases. In 1953, he released "Peter Pan", which, like "Alice in Wonderland", had been in production since the late 1930s/early 1940s and was shelved during the war. However unlike "Alice", "Peter Pan" was a big success both critically and financially on its first release.