prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: When was the kingdom that Heptarchy was part of abolished?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Serres Province
Serres Province was one of the four provinces of Serres Prefecture of Greece  Its territory corresponded with that of the current municipalities Emmanouel Pappas and Serres, and part of the municipality Irakleia  It was abolished in 2006 
Passage 2:
Kavangoland
Kavangoland was a bantustan in South West Africa (present-day Namibia), intended by the apartheid government to be a self-governing homeland for the Kavango people  After the legal framework was established in 1968 as the Development of Self-Government for Native Nations in South-West Africa Act, 1968 (Act No  54 of 1968), Kavangoland was set up in 1970 and self-government was granted in 1973  The Kavango Legislative Council had its administrative headquarters in Rundu; its first session opened in October 1970 in the presence of the South African Minister for Bantu Administration and Development 
Kavangoland, like other homelands in South West Africa, was abolished in May 1989 at the start of the transition to independence 
Sebastian Kamwanga, Hompa (king) of the Gciriku and member of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) was the political representative of Kavangoland from 1981 to 1989 
Passage 3:
Smolensk Governorate
Smolensk Governorate (Russian: Смоленская губерния, romanized: Smolenskaja gubernija), or the Government of Smolensk, was an administrative division (a guberniya) of the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, and the Russian SFSR  It existed, with interruptions, between 1708 and 1929 
Smolensk Governorate, together with seven other governorates, was established on December 29 [O S  December 18], 1708, by an edict from Tsar Peter the Great  As with the rest of the governorates, neither the borders nor internal subdivisions of Smolensk Governorate were defined; instead, the territory was defined as a set of cities, and section of lands adjacent to those cities 

History
On July 28 [O S  July 17], 1713, Smolensk Governorate was abolished and its territory was divided between Moscow and Riga Governorates  Smolensk Province was created as a result  The governorate was re-established in 1726, and Smolensk Province was re-incorporated into the Governorate  In 1775, it was included, along with parts of Moscow and Belgorod Governorates, into Smolensk Viceroyalty  The governorate was again restored in 1796 
After the October Revolution, Smolensk Governorate was base of independent Western Oblast/Western Commune, Soviet Socialist Republic of Belarus, Lithuanian–Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (Litbel), and finally incorporated into the Russian SFSR 
Eventually, on January 14, 1929, Smolensk Governorate was abolished and its territory was incorporated into Western Oblast 

Subdivisions
Smolensk Governorate, together with seven other governorates, was established on December 29 [O S  December 18], 1708, by Tsar Peter the Great's edict  As with the rest of the governorates, neither the borders nor internal subdivisions of Smolensk Governorate were defined; instead, the territory was defined as a set of cities and the lands adjacent to those cities At the time of establishment, the following thirty cities were included into Smolensk Governorate,
In 1713, when Smolensk Governorate was abolished and merged into Riga Governorate, the following five uyezds were established in the area formally occupied by the governorate (the administrative centers are given in parentheses),
Belsky Uyezd (Bely);
Dorogobuzhsky Uyezd (Dorogobuzh);
Roslavlsky Uyezd (Roslavl);
Smolensky Uyezd (Smolensk);
Vyazemsky Uyezd (Vyazma) After Smolensk Governorate was re-established in 1726, it was subdivided into these five uyezds 
In 1775, Smolensk Viceroyalty was subdivided into 12 uyezds, which remained when it was transformed back to a governorate in 1802
(the administrative centers, which all had the town status, are in parentheses),
Belsky Uyezd (Bely);
Dorogobuzhsky Uyezd (Dorogobuzh);
Dukhovshchinsky Uyezd (Dukhovshchina);
Gzhatsky Uyezd (Gzhatsk);
Krasninsky Uyezd (Krasny);
Porechsky Uyezd (Porechye);
Roslavlsky Uyezd (Roslavl);
Smolensky Uyezd (Smolensk);
Sychyovsky Uyezd (Sychyovka);
Vyazemsky Uyezd (Vyazma);
Yelninsky Uyezd (Yelnya);
Yukhnovsky Uyezd (Yukhnov) 

Demography
Language
Population by mother tongue according to the Imperial census of 1897 

Religion
According to the Imperial census of 1897 
Passage 4:
Damaraland
Damaraland was a name given to the north-central part of what later became Namibia, inhabited by the Damaras  It was bounded roughly by Ovamboland in the north, the Namib Desert in the west, the Kalahari Desert in the east, and Windhoek in the south 
In the 1970s the name Damaraland was revived for a bantustan in South West Africa (present-day Namibia), intended by the apartheid government to be a self-governing homeland for the Damara people  A centrally administered local government was created in 1980  The bantustan Damaraland was situated on the western edge of the territory that had been known as Damaraland in the 19th century 
Damaraland, like other homelands in South West Africa, was abolished in May 1989 at the start of the transition to independence 
The name Damaraland predates South African control of Namibia, and was described as "the central portion of German South West Africa" in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition 

See also
Apartheid
Bantustans in South West Africa
Leaders of Damaraland
Diocese of Namibia (formerly Diocese of Damaraland)
Passage 5:
Pyrgiotissa
Pyrgiotissa was a province of Heraklion Prefecture, Crete, Greece  Its territory corresponded with that of the current municipal unit Tympaki  It was abolished in 2006 
Passage 6:
Mercian Supremacy
The Mercian Supremacy was the period of Anglo-Saxon history between c  716 and c  825, when the kingdom of Mercia dominated the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy in England  Sir Frank Stenton apparently coined the phrase, arguing that Offa of Mercia, who ruled 757–796, effectively achieved the unification of England south of the Humber estuary  Scholastic opinion on the relationship between the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia at this time remains divided 
While the precise period during which the Mercian Supremacy existed remains uncertain – depending upon whether one includes the reigns of Penda (c  626–655) and Wulfhere (658–675) – the end of the era is generally agreed to be around 825, following the defeat of King Beornwulf at the Battle of Ellandun (near present-day Swindon) 
Nicholas Brooks noted that "the Mercians stand out as by far the most successful of the various early Anglo-Saxon peoples until the later ninth century" and with the exception of three years under Northumbrian domination, this is true between the years 633 and 825 Recorded by Bede as the nemesis of early Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, Penda of Mercia achieved an early expansion of his kingdom's territory, but his reign ended with his death in battle, which was followed by a brief three-year period when Northumbria ruled over the Mercians  The rebellion against Northumbria by Penda's son Wulfhere in 658 immediately preceded the restoration of Penda's kingdom and a period of expansion in which Mercia's influence reached as far south as the Isle of Wight  During this period of expansion, Mercia lost its province of the Kingdom of Lindsey to Northumbria in 661, but its recapture by Æthelred of Mercia following the Battle of the Trent in 679 secured Mercia's position as the dominant Anglo-Saxon power for over a century 
Mercia's hold over the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Essex, Sussex and Kent seems to have been tenuous until 716, when Æthelbald of Mercia restored Mercia's hegemony for over forty years  Offa's accession in 757 heralded the beginning of a golden age for Mercia  Some historians have suggested that Offa's defeat of the Welsh and the West Saxons of Wessex established the Mercian Supremacy, which remained unchallenged until 825 when Egbert of Wessex supported an East Anglian rebellion against Beornwulf of Mercia, whose defeat at Ellendun effectively brought the Supremacy to an end 
Passage 7:
Capital punishment in New Zealand
Capital punishment in New Zealand – the process of sentencing convicted offenders to death for the most serious crimes (capital crimes) and carrying out that sentence, as ordered by a legal system – first appeared in a codified form when New Zealand became a British colony in 1840  It was first carried out with a public hanging in Victoria Street, Auckland in 1842, while the last execution occurred in 1957 at Mount Eden Prison, also in Auckland   In total, 85 people have been executed in New Zealand Capital punishment was first abolished for murder in 1941 by the First Labour Government, with all death sentences commuted to life imprisonment  However, the succeeding First National Government reinstated it in 1949, following which eight more executions took place in the period up to 1957  Subsequently, public opinion turned against the use of capital punishment, and it was once again abolished for murder in 1961, and abolished for all crimes, including treason, in 1989 

Method
The method of execution was always by hanging  At first, there were many possible execution sites all around the country, but later, the only two cities where hangings were carried out were Wellington (the capital) and Auckland (now the largest city) 
Initially, there was no professional hangman employed—the executioner was simply chosen from among any who were deemed qualified  On occasion, convicted criminals were employed as hangmen, often in exchange for reduced sentences or monetary reward  In 1877, the sheriff of Blenheim recommended that a professional executioner be hired  Tom Long, an Irishman who claimed to have been an executioner in Australia, was hired as the official hangman  He was the only official hangman to be publicly known; others remained anonymous 

History
At the time of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 when New Zealand became a British colony, the most current legislation governing capital punishment in England, and henceforth New Zealand, was the Punishment of Offences Act (1837), which had abolished the death penalty for a number of statutory offences, including cattle stealing, and replaced it with penal transportation for life  However, some capital crimes remained on the British law books, including murder, treason, espionage, arson in the royal dockyards, and piracy with violence All those executed were convicted of murder, with the exception of Hamiora Pere, who was convicted of treason in 1869  All bar one were men; the exception being Minnie Dean, who was found guilty of infanticide in 1895  However, before Dean's trial, imprisonment and execution, several other women had been found guilty of Infanticide in nineteenth-century New Zealand, but had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment  These were Caroline Whitting (1872), Phoebe Veitch (1883) and Sarah-Jane and Anna Flannagan (1891) 

Public executions
The first eight executions were carried out in public, from 1842 to 1858; five outside the gate of the Auckland Gaol on the corner of Queen Street and Victoria Street West in central Auckland; one on King Edward Parade on the waterfront at Devonport; and two outside Mount Cook Gaol in Wellington, which is today the site of the Dominion Museum building and National War Memorial on Puke Ahu At the first execution, on 7 March 1842, approximately a thousand people gathered at the corner of Queen Street and Victoria Street West, now the centre of the Auckland CBD, to witness the hanging of Wiremu Kīngi Maketū  He had been found guilty of murdering five people on Motuarohia Island, in the Bay of Islands  The people killed were Thomas Bull, employed by Elisabeth Roberton, who was also murdered along with her son aged eight, her daughter of two, and a girl of nearly three named Isabella Brind, the natural daughter of one Captain Brind by a Māori woman, the daughter of Rewa, chief of Ngapuhi in that area  Mrs Roberton's husband, Captain John Roberton, had drowned prior in Paroa Bay, just opposite the island  Thomas Bull had a reputation for strength and brutality  He seemed at all times to have made a set at Maketū and had on several occasions struck, thrown, or otherwise maltreated him  Maketū was unable to defend himself against such an opponent; nor indeed did it conform with his notions of dignity to do so, he being (by virtue of his chiefly rank) above combat with one who was a servant and whom he therefore regarded on the same plane as a slave  Maketū, therefore, bided his time for revenge  Maketū then killed Thomas Bull in the night with an axe; he then brutally murdered Mrs Roberton, who was shouting abuse at him and then went to murder the two girls (ransacking the house and then burning Mrs Roberton and the two children within it)  The boy ran up Pa Hill, where Maketū chased him and threw him off the 200-foot (60 m) cliff  He was sentenced to death by an all-white jury (his defence had wanted a half-white, half-Māori jury) in an Auckland court, and executed on 7 March 1842 

The second execution in New Zealand was the public hanging of Joseph Burns on 17 June 1848  On the day of his execution, he was paraded down Auckland's Queen St, seated in a coffin, and taken by boat across the Waitemata Harbour to the Devonport waterfront, where he was hanged on King Edward Parade, not far from the scene of his crimes  Burns was the first European settler to be executed in New Zealand The third execution in New Zealand, and first in Wellington, occurred on 19 April 1849  Maroro of Ngāti Kahungunu descent was hanged outside Mount Cook Gaol in front of approximately 500 people, following his conviction of the murder of John Branks and his three children The fourth execution occurred in the same location in Wellington on 17 June 1850, in front of a similar sized crowd, when William Good was hanged for the murder of John Ellis  The scaffold was "erected on Cook's Mount, immediately in front of the brick wall of the gaol "The fifth execution was that of escaped Australian convict, William Bowden, on 27 April 1852  He was hanged on the scaffold erected outside the entrance gate of the Auckland Gaol, on the corner of Queen Street and Victoria Street West, in front of approximately 300 people The sixth execution in New Zealand, and the third public hanging to take place outside the Auckland Gaol on the corner of Queen and Victoria Streets was that of Charles Marsden on 12 February 1856  It took approximately 14 minutes for Marsden to die, with accusations that his execution was "clumsily performed" The seventh execution took place in Auckland at sunrise on 11 July 1856 with the public hanging of John White  In a sign of changing attitudes to the spectacle of public executions, the Superintendent had ordered that the scaffold be erected after dark the previous evening, and the front of the scaffold, under the drop, be partially boarded up  Due to the early hour of the execution, no more than twenty to thirty people witnessed the event on the corner of Queen Street and Victoria Street West The last public execution was that of John Killey, who had been found guilty of murdering John Butler in Whangarei on 17 December 1857  At his later sentencing in Auckland, the judge, Sir George Alfred Arney, was "said to have been moved to tears" in passing sentence, while Killey "fell down in the dock in a fainting fit"  He was hanged on 18 March 1858, also outside the gate of the Auckland Gaol 

Move to abolish public executions in the British colonies of Australasia
Throughout the British colonies of Australasia public hangings came to be seen as "barbarous spectacles"  The last public hanging in Sydney took place outside Darlinghurst Gaol on 21 September 1852, in which local press noted disapprovingly the "extraordinary attendance of children, upon whose tender minds the shocking spectacle of a fellow creature dangling at the end of a rope, had no other more serious effect than that of eliciting from them three cheers for the hangman"  New South Wales, where public executions were also "associated with the hated convict era", became the first of the British colonies in Australia to abolish public executions, when the Act to Regulate the Execution of Criminals 1855 (NSW) came into force on 10 January 1855 Victoria and Tasmania followed shortly after with the Private Execution Act 1855 (Vic) and the Criminals’ Execution Act 1855 (Tas) respectively  When the Moreton Bay settlement separated from NSW to become the self-governing colony of Queensland in 1859, the New South Wales legislation automatically applied While South Australia and Western Australia abolished public executions in 1858 and 1870 respectively, both colonies subsequently passed amendments which allowed for the hanging of capitally convicted Aboriginal Australians at the scene of their alleged crimes: the Act to Amend an Act to Regulate the Execution of Criminals 1861 (SA) and the Capital Punishment Amendment Act 1871 Amendment Act 1875 (WA) In New Zealand, public executions were abolished under Section 1 of the Executions of Criminals Act 1858, which specified that executions had to be carried out "within the walls or the enclosed yard of some gaol, or within some other enclosed space"  The Act came into force on 3 June 1858, three months after the country's last public hanging in central Auckland By way of comparison with other English-speaking countries which share an historical legacy of English common law, the last public execution in the United Kingdom was the hanging of Michael Barrett outside Newgate Prison in London on 26 May 1868, in front of a crowd of approximately 2000 people  Canada's last public execution occurred on 7 December 1869 when Nicholas Melady was hanged in front of "a few hundred spectators", outside the Huron County Gaol, now called the Huron Historic Gaol, in Goderich, Ontario  The last judicial execution carried out in public in the United States was the hanging of Rainey Bethea in a parking lot in Owensboro, Kentucky on 14 August 1936, in front of an estimated crowd of 20,000 

Executed out of public view
In 1862, in Wellington, James Collins became the first person in New Zealand to be executed out of public view In 1866, the site of the old Auckland Gaol was made ready for a temporary market  The Sheriff approved the removal of the graves of the five executed criminals, to respect "public decency"  The bodies were reinterred in "a remote and unused spot" of the Symonds St Cemetery The last person to be executed was Walter James Bolton, for poisoning his wife, on 18 February 1957 

Abolition: 1949–1961
When the Labour Party formed its first government following the 1935 general election, it commuted all death sentences to life imprisonment  The Crimes Amendment Act 1941  changed the penalty for murder from death to life imprisonment with hard labour  The only crimes for which the death penalty still applied were treason and piracy 
The Labour Party lost power to the more conservative National Party, which had pledged to reintroduce capital punishment, in 1949  During that earlier period, support and opposition for capital punishment were clearly delineated on partisan grounds  The National Party supported the restoration and maintenance of the death penalty, while the Labour Party opposed it  During debate over the Capital Punishment Act 1950 (which exempted expectant mothers and young persons under the age of 18 years), Labour expressed concern about the constitutional implications of the concentration of executive power in this context (although Labour had used this power from 1935 to 1941), while National Party Attorney-General Clifton Webb referred to the alleged "deterrent" value of the death penalty as potential threat and punitive severity  However, Webb was relatively sparing in his use of the death penalty, while his successor, Attorney-General Jack Marshall (1955–1957), was a hardliner on that issue and the number and pace of executions accelerated, arousing debate 
During the time that the National Party was in office (1949–1957), 36 people were convicted of murder, and 22 of those were sentenced to death (George Horry was convicted of murder in 1951 but not hanged because the death penalty was not in force in 1942)  The final decision on executions rested with Cabinet, and only eight of the condemned were executed  The rest were commuted to life imprisonment  Even then, professional opinion was divided  Film censor Gordon Mirams did not regard spectacles of hanging as appropriate content within crime dramas and western films and excised such content and dialogue on the basis of family propriety According to Department of Justice historian Pauline Engel, the British Royal Commission on Capital Punishment (1953) may have heavily influenced the rise of abolitionism, as did the controversies that surrounded the executions of Harry Whiteland and Edward Te Whiu, which raised questions about post-war trauma, intellectual and developmental disability as factors for leniency 
Social historian Redmer Yska has argued that such concern arose much earlier  When the National Party restored capital punishment in 1950, it became an administrative ordeal for civil servants involved, particularly those within correctional facilities like Mount Eden Prison in Auckland, law enforcement and the judiciary  Corrections staff needed to maintain suicide watch for the convicted felon, conduct regular health checks and provide pastoral care for the condemned individual's relatives, as well as insure prison security during executions Official requirements mandated the presence of a magistrate, doctor and sheriffs  During the late fifties, Attorney-General Jack Marshall accelerated the pace of executions and post-traumatic stress disorder, alcoholism and duodenal haemorrhaging developed amongst two of the three staff obliged to participate during execution procedures  In cases of political import, prudent reprieves and commuted penalties did occur, as happened when three Niue Islanders were sentenced to death after killing a manifestly brutal and oppressive Resident Commissioner (and were reprieved only after New Zealand prison officials had reached Niue to carry out the hangings)  On that occasion, the Public Questions Committee of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand became involved in strenuously lobbying against the verdict Class differences were also seen to affect the verdict  Dr  Senga Wintringham was convicted of manslaughter, rather than murder, in February 1955, after shooting and killing Dr Bill Saunders  Wintringham claimed that she had only meant to intimidate him, rather than kill him  The Peoples Voice, newspaper of the Communist Party of New Zealand, criticised the perceived "double standard" in this context, as the courts had just convicted and sentenced 26-year-old British migrant and itinerant labourer Frederick Foster to death, despite questions about mental illness and intellectual impairment in his context, as well as appeals from his mother  Foster had shot and killed Sharon Skeffington, his former girlfriend  Although Foster was sentenced to death and executed, defence counsel Dr Martyn Finlay succeeded in raising questions about the limited intellectual capabilities and mental health of the condemned person in this context  Similar questions would arise in the trial, conviction and execution of Albert Webb  The New Zealand Listener editorialised against the death penalty in July 1955, and received supportive feedback from its letters page correspondents Eddie Te Whiu was hanged in August 1955, after he had killed an elderly widow in Ngararatunua, near Kamo, when an attempted burglary went wrong  Abolitionist sentiment grew again, as, with the Foster and Black cases, there was perceptible anxiety about the failure of "deterrence" value in the context of violent homicides, and whether Te Whiu should have been convicted of manslaughter instead, due to his dysfunctional family origins and limited intellectual capabilities  As a result, a National Committee for Abolition of the Death Penalty was formed in November 1956, with branches in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin 
Engel and Maureen Garing have drawn attention to the involvement of Protestant Christian opposition to capital punishment  In 1941 and 1951, the Christian Social Justice League, Christchurch Anglican Diocesan Synod and Methodist Public Questions Committee supported abolition, as did individual Catholics, although their hierarchy remained neutral in this debate  The New Zealand Theosophical Society also opposed capital punishment, and the Churches of Christ and Baptist Union declared its opposition in the late fifties  As religious opposition grew, it provided opponents of capital punishment with an organisational base that was used to good effect  Redmer Yska notes that clergy often refused to participate in legitimising executions through their presence, of whatever denomination As a consequence of controversy over the perceived escalation in use of capital punishment, abolitionist petitions started to circulate as well  In 1956, a proposal for a referendum on capital punishment was put forward by the Minister of Justice, Jack Marshall  This referendum was to be voted on during the 1957 general election, but the proposal was defeated Meanwhile, Walter James Bolton (1888–1957) was executed at Mount Eden Prison in Auckland in February 1957, after he had allegedly poisoned his wife with arsenic  Given that the National Party lost that election, there were to be no further executions within New Zealand  However, while the election saw a short-lived Labour government elected, capital punishment was not debated in Parliament again before the National party regained power after the 1960 election 
In 1961, the National Party reaffirmed its support for the death penalty, although restricted its use to premeditated murders, and those committed during another crime or during an escape from custody  The issue of capital punishment generated intensive debate within the National Party—the Minister of Justice in the Second National Government, who was responsible for introducing the Crimes Bill 1961, Ralph Hanan, strongly opposed the death penalty, while Jack Marshall, the Deputy Prime Minister, had supported its use while serving as Minister of Justice and Attorney General, as noted above 

Abolition and its aftermath: 1961 onwards
Aware of growing public opposition to capital punishment, the National Party allowed its MPs to exercise a conscience vote in Parliament, and ten National MPs subsequently voted in favour of abolition  The result was a majority of 11 against capital punishment, 41–30  The ten National MPs were Ernest Aderman, Gordon Grieve, Ralph Hanan, Duncan MacIntyre, Robert Muldoon, Lorrie Pickering, Logan Sloane, Brian Talboys, Esme Tombleson and Bert Walker  The death penalty was therefore abolished for murder, being retained only for treason and other similar acts in theory  In principle, this meant that de facto abolition had occurred from that point onward These last theoretical vestiges of capital punishment were abolished under the Palmer Labour cabinet in November 1989 with the passage of the Abolition of the Death Penalty Act 1989, and there were no further executions during the interim period  Passage of the Abolition of the Death Penalty Act ended all capital punishment in New Zealand  The Cook Islands, which based its statutes on New Zealand law, formally retained the death penalty for treason until it was abolished in 2007  The death penalty was never used in the Cook Islands Occasional calls to reinstate capital punishment still occur, but no major political party has made capital punishment an element of any of their election manifestos since the 1989 Abolition act  As for minor political parties, the solitary exception was the fundamentalist Christian Heritage New Zealand, which has been defunct since 2005 
A 2004 1 News Colmar Brunton  poll found 28% were in favour of bringing back the death penalty, 67% did not want to bring the death penalty back, and 5% were undecided  In a 2013 Curia poll for TV3's The Nation, 38% of New Zealanders were in favour of the death penalty—a nominal increase from the 28% in 2004—while 55% were opposed it, and 7% were undecided  Also in the poll, 35% of Labour voters favoured the death penalty and National voters' support polled at 44%  Least likely to be in favour were Green Party voters at 19%, but the strongest support came from New Zealand First voters at 84% 

See also
Capital punishment in the Cook Islands
List of people executed in New Zealand
Passage 8:
Lakes, Cumbria
Lakes is a civil parish in Westmorland and Furness, England  In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 5,127, decreasing at the 2011 census to 4,420  It covers the town of Ambleside, and the villages and hamlets of Clappersgate, Rydal, Grasmere, Troutbeck, Chapel Stile, Elterwater, Little Langdale and Waterhead 
Lakes CP incorporates within its boundaries the wards of Ambleside, the Langdales, Rydal & Loughrigg, Grasmere and Troutbeck The parish was formed in 1934 as an urban district, despite being largely rural, under a County Review Order, by a merger of Ambleside and Grasmere urban districts and parts of Windermere Urban District, South Westmorland Rural District and West Ward Rural District The A591 road, a primary route, passes through the centre of the CP, it enters the parish from the South at the point where it crosses Trout Beck at Troutbeck Bridge village  After covering 16 km (10 mi) in road distance,(13 4 km (8 5 mi) as the crow flies) it leaves the parish at Dunmail Raise  The A592 road passes through the eastern area of the parish  The col of the Kirkstone Pass, at a point approximately 200 m north of the Kirkstone Inn, marks the northern boundary of Lakes CP It is the area covered by the Kelsick Foundation, an organisation that helps locals with the costs of extra-curricular activities for children 
The urban district had an area of 49,917 acres (202 01 km2)  or 202 km² 
The urban district was abolished in 1974, with the Patterdale ward becoming a civil parish in the Eden district, and the rest becoming a civil parish in South Lakeland 

See also
Listed buildings in Lakes, Cumbria
Passage 9:
Mountain (electoral district)
Mountain is a former provincial electoral division in Manitoba, Canada   It was created for the 1879 provincial election, and was abolished shortly before the 1958 election 
Mountain was located in southwestern Manitoba, near Portage la Prairie   The constituency was mostly rural, and included communities such as Baldur and Argyles   Premier Dufferin Roblin once referred to the division's name as "curious", given that it marked by "the gentle landscape of the Pembina escarpment" Several prominent Manitoba politicians represented Mountain, including Charles Cannon, Ivan Schultz and Premier Thomas Greenway   The constituency was shaped like an "L" in the nineteenth century, and was sometimes called "Greenway's armchair"   For most of its history, Mountain was considered safe for the Manitoba Liberal Party and its successor, the Liberal-Progressive Party  But an effort was made to put forward an Independent third-party candidate in 1914 In 1955, Mountain's population was estimated to be about 50% Anglo-Saxon, 33% French Canadian, and 16 5% Flemish 

Provincial representatives
Passage 10:
Franklin District
Franklin District was a New Zealand territorial authority that lay between the Auckland metropolitan area and the Waikato Plains  As a formal territory, it was abolished on 31 October 2010 and divided between Auckland Council in the Auckland Region (39 82 percent by land area) to the north and Waikato and Hauraki districts in the Waikato region (60 18 percent) to the south and east  The Auckland portion is now part of the Franklin ward, which also includes rural parts of the former Manukau City 
Before its abolition, it was administered from the town of Pukekohe  Out-going Franklin District Mayor Mark Ball had proposed that Franklin district become an independent unitary authority, fulfilling both the functions of a local and regional council  However, this was rejected by Minister Rodney Hide 

Location and extent
The district was bounded in the north by the start of the Auckland metropolitan area and the waters of the Manukau Harbour  Awhitu Peninsula stretches up the Tasman coast to the mouth of this harbour  Here are located several holiday spots, such as Karioitahi Beach and Matakawau 
To the south, Franklin was bounded by the fertile lowlands of the Waikato Plains  In the east, the land rises to the Hunua Ranges, then falls to the coast of the Firth of Thames  In the west is the Tasman Sea   The Waikato River mouth is at Port Waikato in the south of the region  This is renowned as a good place for surfcasting 
The area is mainly rural, with local settlements such as Waiuku and Tuakau supporting the farming industry  One industry of note is the New Zealand Steel steel mill at Glenbrook, north of Waiuku 

Mayors
Six people served as mayor of Franklin District during its 21-year existence:

Nomenclature
The name of "Franklin" probably derives from Lady Jane Franklin, an early British traveller and the wife of Captain Sir John Franklin,
who served as Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land (1837–1843)  Lady Franklin visited the Waikato Heads in 1841 

Media
Franklin County News, a twice-weekly newspaper based in Pukekohe, serves the former Franklin district  The Post Newspaper distributes 26,000 printed copies weekly on a Tuesday, covering Franklin and North Waikato  The Post Newspaper has an office in both Pukekohe and Waiuku  In 2015, the online events calendar and photo news Franklin Life NZ was launched 

Populated centres
Here are some of the following suburbs, towns, villages and other settlements within the former Franklin District's territorial area borders, grouped into their present-day adjacent areas:
Northern Franklin (now part of Auckland Super-City)

Wattle Bay, Orua Bay, Big Bay, Grahams Beach, Awhitu, Kauritutahi, Matakawau, Matakawau Point, Clarks Beach, Pollok, Te Toro, Glenbrook Beach, Waiau Beach, Mission Bush, Karioitahi, Waiuku, Kingseat, Waiau Pa, Patumahoe, Te Hihi, Karaka, Roseneath Road, Paerata, Pukekohe, Bombay, Ararimu, Hunua,Southern Franklin (now part of Waikato District)

Otaua, Aka Aka, Tuakau, Buckland, Paparimu, Pōkeno, Port Waikato, Mercer, Mangatāwhiri, Onewhero, Pukekawa, Glen Murray, Naike, Mangatangi, Limestone DownsNorth Eastern Franklin (now part of Hauraki District)

Waharau, Whakatīwai, Kaiaua, Miranda
Passage 11:
Mercia
Mercia (, Old English: Miercna rīċe; Latin: Merciorum regnum) was one of the three notable Anglic kingdoms founded after Sub-Roman Britain was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy  It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlands of England 
A Latinisation of an Old English word derived from the Mercian Old English, Merce, meaning "borderland" (whence the Modern English words mark and march), the kingdom was rendered as Mierce or Myrce in the West Saxon dialect  The name is still used as a geographic designation by a wide range of organisations: military units, public, commercial and voluntary bodies The royal court moved around the kingdom without a fixed capital city  Early in its existence Repton seems to have been the location of an important royal estate  According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, it was from Repton in 873–874 that the Great Heathen Army deposed the King of Mercia  Slightly earlier, King Offa seems to have favoured Tamworth  It was there where he was crowned and spent many a Christmas 
For 300 years (between 600 and 900), known as Mercian Supremacy or the "Golden Age of Mercia", having annexed or gained submissions from five of the other six kingdoms of the Heptarchy (East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Sussex and Wessex), Mercia dominated England south of the Humber estuary  During King Offa's reign, a dyke was created as the boundary between Mercia and the Welsh kingdoms  Nicholas Brooks noted that "the Mercians stand out as by far the most successful of the various early Anglo-Saxon peoples until the later ninth century", and some historians, such as Sir Frank Stenton, believe the unification of England south of the Humber estuary was achieved during Offa's reign King Peada converted to Christianity around 656, the Diocese of Mercia was founded in this year, with the first bishop (Diuma) based at Repton  The religion firmly established in the kingdom by the late 7th century  After 13 years at Repton, 669 AD, Saint Chad (the fifth bishop) moved the bishopric to Lichfield and, in 691 AD, the Diocese of Mercia became the Diocese of Lichfield  There has been a diocese based in the city ever since  For a brief period between 787 and 799 or 803 the diocese was an archbishopric  The current bishop, Michael Ipgrave, is the 99th since the diocese was established 
At the end of the 9th century, following the invasions of the Vikings and their Great Heathen Army, Danelaw absorbed much of the former Mercian territory  Danelaw at its height included London, all of East Anglia and most of the North of England 
The final Mercian king, Ceolwulf II, died in 879 with the kingdom appearing to have lost its political independence  Initially, it was ruled by a lord or ealdorman under the overlordship of Alfred the Great, who styled himself "King of the Anglo-Saxons"  The kingdom had a brief period of independence in the mid-10th century and in 1016, by which time it was viewed as a province with temporary independence  Wessex conquered and united all the kingdoms into the Kingdom of England  The kingdom became an earldom until 1071 

History
Early history
Mercia's exact evolution at the start of the Anglo-Saxon era remains more obscure than that of Northumbria, Kent, or even Wessex  Mercia developed an effective political structure and was Christianised later than the other kingdoms  Archaeological surveys show that Angles settled the lands north of the River Thames by the 6th century  The name "Mercia" is Mercian Old English for "boundary folk" (see Welsh Marches), and the traditional interpretation is that the kingdom originated along the frontier between the native Welsh and the Anglo-Saxon invaders  However, Peter Hunter Blair argued an alternative interpretation: that they emerged along the frontier between Northumbria and the inhabitants of the Trent river valley Although its earliest boundaries remain obscure, a general agreement persists that the territory that was called "the first of the Mercians" in the Tribal Hidage covered much of south Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire and northern Warwickshire The earliest person named in any records as a king of Mercia is Creoda, said to have been the great-grandson of Icel  Coming to power around 584, he built a fortress at Tamworth which became the seat of Mercia's kings  His son Pybba succeeded him in 593  Cearl, a kinsman of Creoda, followed Pybba in 606; in 615, Cearl gave his daughter Cwenburga in marriage to Edwin, king of Deira, whom he had sheltered while he was an exiled prince The Mercian kings were the only Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy ruling house known to claim a direct family link with a pre-migration Continental Germanic monarchy 

Penda and the Mercian Supremacy
The next Mercian king, Penda, ruled from about 626 or 633 until 655  Some of what is known about Penda comes from the hostile account of Bede, who disliked him – both as an enemy to Bede's own Northumbria and as a pagan  However, Bede admits that Penda freely allowed Christian missionaries from Lindisfarne into Mercia and did not restrain them from preaching  In 633 Penda and his ally Cadwallon of Gwynedd defeated and killed Edwin, who had become not only ruler of the newly unified Northumbria, but bretwalda, or high king, over the southern kingdoms  When another Northumbrian king, Oswald, arose and again claimed overlordship of the south, he also suffered defeat and death at the hands of Penda and his allies – in 642 at the Battle of Maserfield  In 655, after a period of confusion in Northumbria, Penda brought 30 sub-kings to fight the new Northumbrian king Oswiu at the Battle of Winwaed, in which Penda in turn lost the battle and his life The battle led to a temporary collapse of Mercian power  Penda's son Peada, who had converted to Christianity at Repton in 653, succeeded his father as king of Mercia; Oswiu set up Peada as an under-king; but in the spring of 656 he was murdered and Oswiu assumed direct control of the whole of Mercia  A Mercian revolt in 658 threw off Northumbrian domination and resulted in the appearance of another son of Penda, Wulfhere, who ruled Mercia as an independent kingdom (though he apparently continued to render tribute to Northumbria for a while) until his death in 675  Wulfhere initially succeeded in restoring the power of Mercia, but the end of his reign saw a serious defeat by Northumbria  The next king, Æthelred, defeated Northumbria in the Battle of the Trent in 679, settling once and for all the long-disputed control of the former kingdom of Lindsey  Æthelred was succeeded by Cœnred, son of Wulfhere; both these kings became better known for their religious activities than anything else, but the king who succeeded them in 709, Ceolred, is said in a letter of Saint Boniface to have been a dissolute youth who died insane  So ended the rule of the direct descendants of Penda At some point before the accession of Æthelbald in 716 the Mercians conquered the region around Wroxeter, known to the Welsh as Pengwern or as "The Paradise of Powys"  Elegies written in the persona of its dispossessed rulers record the sorrow at this loss 
The next important king of Mercia, Æthelbald, reigned from 716 to 757  For the first few years of his reign he had to face two strong rival kings, Wihtred of Kent and Ine of Wessex  But when Wihtred died in 725, and Ine abdicated in 726 to become a monk in Rome, Æthelbald was free to establish Mercia's hegemony over the rest of the Anglo-Saxons south of the Humber  Æthelbald suffered a setback in 752, when the West Saxons under Cuthred defeated him, but he seems to have restored his supremacy over Wessex by 757 In July 2009, the Staffordshire Hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold was discovered by Terry Herbert in a field at Hammerwich, near Brownhills and close to  Lichfield in Staffordshire  Lichfield functioned as the religious centre of Mercia  The artefacts have tentatively been dated by Svante Fischer and Jean Soulat to around AD 600–800  Whether the hoard was deposited by Anglo-Saxon pagans or Christians remains unclear, as does the purpose of the deposit 

Reign of Offa and rise of Wessex
After the murder of Æthelbald by one of his bodyguards in 757, a civil war broke out which concluded with the victory of Offa, a descendant of Pybba  Offa (reigned 757 to 796) had to build anew the hegemony which his predecessor had exercised over the southern English, and he did this so successfully that he became the greatest king Mercia had ever known  Not only did he win battles and dominate Southern England, but also he took an active hand in administering the affairs of his kingdom, founding market towns and overseeing the first major issues of gold coins in Britain; he assumed a role in the administration of the Catholic Church in England (sponsoring the short-lived archbishopric of Lichfield, 787 to 799), and even negotiated with Charlemagne as an equal  Offa is credited with the construction of Offa's Dyke, which marked the border between Wales and Mercia Offa exerted himself to ensure that his son Ecgfrith of Mercia would succeed him, but after Offa's death in July 796 Ecgfrith survived for only five months, and the kingdom passed to a distant relative named Coenwulf in December 796  In 821 Coenwulf's brother Ceolwulf succeeded to the Mercian kingship; he demonstrated his military prowess by his attack on and destruction of the fortress of Deganwy in Gwynedd  The power of the West Saxons under Egbert (King of Wessex from 802 to 839) grew during this period, however, and in 825 Egbert defeated the Mercian king Beornwulf (who had overthrown Ceolwulf in 823) at Ellendun The Battle of Ellendun proved decisive  At this point, Mercia lost control of Kent, Sussex, Surrey, and possibly also Essex  Beornwulf was slain while suppressing a revolt amongst the East Angles, and his successor, a former ealdorman named Ludeca (reigned 826–827), met the same fate  Another ealdorman, Wiglaf, subsequently ruled for less than two years before Egbert of Wessex drove him out of Mercia  In 830 Wiglaf regained independence for Mercia, but by this time Wessex had clearly become the dominant power in England  Circa 840 Beorhtwulf succeeded Wiglaf 

Arrival of the Danes
In 852, Burgred came to the throne, and with Ethelwulf of Wessex subjugated North Wales  In 868 Danish invaders occupied Nottingham  The Danes drove Burgred from his kingdom in 874 and Ceolwulf II took his place  In 877 the Danes seized the eastern part of Mercia, which became part of the Danelaw  Ceolwulf, the last king of Mercia, left with the western half, reigned until 879  From about 883 until his death in 911 Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, ruled Mercia under the overlordship of Wessex  Alfred changed his title from 'king of the West Saxons' to 'king of the Anglo-Saxons' to reflect the acceptance of his overlordship of all southern England not under Danish rule  All coins struck in Mercia after the disappearance of Ceolwulf in c  879 were in the name of the West Saxon king  Æthelred had married Æthelflæd (c  870 – 12 June 918), daughter of Alfred the Great of Wessex (r  871–899), and she assumed power when her husband became ill at some time in the last ten years of his life After Æthelred's death in 911 Æthelflæd ruled as "Lady of the Mercians", but Alfred's successor as King of the Anglo-Saxons, Edward the Elder (r  899–924), took control of London and Oxford, which Alfred had placed under Æthelred's control  Æthelflæd and her brother continued Alfred's policy of building fortified burhs, and by 918 they had conquered the southern Danelaw in East Anglia and Danish Mercia 

Loss of independence
When Æthelflæd died in 918, Ælfwynn, her daughter by Æthelred, succeeded as "Second Lady of the Mercians", but within six months Edward had deprived her of all authority in Mercia and taken her to Wessex  Edward was succeeded as king of the Anglo-Saxons by his eldest son Æthelstan (r  924–939), who had been brought up in Mercia, and he was immediately accepted as king, but not in Wessex until the following year  In 927 he conquered Northumbria and thus became the first king of all England  Mercia briefly regained a political existence separate from Wessex in 955–959, when Edgar became king of Mercia, and again in 1016, when Cnut and Edmund Ironside divided the English kingdom between themselves, with Cnut taking Mercia  Mercia maintained its separate identity as an earldom until the Norman Conquest in 1066 

Mercian Old English
The dialect thrived between the 8th and 13th centuries and was referred to by John Trevisa, writing in 1387:
For men of the est with men of the west, as it were undir the same partie of hevene, acordeth more in sownynge of speche than men of the north with men of the south, therfore it is that Mercii, that beeth men of myddel Engelond, as it were parteners of the endes, understondeth better the side langages, northerne and southerne, than northerne and southerne understondeth either other   
J  R  R  Tolkien is one of many scholars who have studied and promoted the Mercian dialect of Old English, and introduced various Mercian terms into his legendarium – especially in relation to the Kingdom of Rohan, otherwise known as the Mark (a name cognate with Mercia)    The Mercian dialect is the basis of Tolkien's language of Rohan, and a number of its kings are given the same names as monarchs who appear in the Mercian royal genealogy, e g  Fréawine, Fréaláf and Éomer (see List of kings of the Angles) 

Mercian religion
The first kings of Mercia were pagans, and they resisted the encroachment of Christianity longer than other kingdoms in the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy Mercian rulers remained resolutely pagan until the reign of Peada in 656, although this did not prevent them joining coalitions with Christian Welsh rulers to resist Northumbria  The first appearance of Christianity in Mercia, however, had come at least thirty years earlier, following the Battle of Cirencester of 628, when Penda incorporated the formerly West Saxon territories of Hwicce into his kingdom The conversion of Mercia to Christianity occurred in the latter part of the 7th century, and by the time of Penda's defeat and death, Mercia was largely surrounded by Christian states  Diuma, an Irish monk and one of Oswiu's missionaries, was subsequently ordained a bishop – the first to operate in Mercia  Christianity finally gained a foothold in Mercia when Oswiu supported Peada as sub-king of the Middle Angles, requiring him to marry Oswiu's daughter, Alchflaed, and to accept her religion Decisive steps to Christianise Mercia were taken by Chad (Latinised by Bede as Ceadda), the fifth bishop to operate in Mercia  This controversial figure was given land by King Wulfhere to build a monastery at Lichfield  Evidence suggests that the Lichfield Gospels were made in Lichfield around 730  As in other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, the many small monasteries established by the Mercian kings allowed the political/military and ecclesiastical leadership to consolidate their unity through bonds of kinship 

Subdivisions of Mercia
For knowledge of the internal composition of the Kingdom of Mercia, we must rely on a document of uncertain age (possibly late 7th century), known as the Tribal Hidage – an assessment of the extent (but not the location) of land owned (reckoned in hides), and therefore the military obligations and perhaps taxes due, by each of the Mercian tribes and subject kingdoms by name  This hidage exists in several manuscript versions, some as late as the 14th century  It lists a number of peoples, such as the Hwicce, who have now vanished, except for reminders in various placenames  The major subdivisions of Mercia were as follows:
South MerciansThe Mercians dwelling south of the River Trent  Folk groups within included the Tomsæte around Tamworth and the Pencersæte around Penkridge (roughly corresponding to southern Staffordshire and northern Warwickshire) North MerciansThe Mercians dwelling north of the River Trent (roughly corresponding to eastern Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire) Outer MerciaAn early phase of Mercian expansion, possibly 6th century (roughly corresponding to southern Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire) LindseyOnce a kingdom in its own right, disputed with Northumbria in the 7th century before finally coming under Mercian control (roughly corresponding to the historic riding of Lindsey in Lincolnshire) Middle AnglesA collection of many smaller folk groups under Mercian control from the 7th century, including the Spaldingas around Spalding, the Bilmingas and Wideringas near Stamford, the North Gyrwe and South Gyrwe near Peterborough, the West Wixna, East Wixna, West Wille and East Wille near Ely, the Sweordora, Hurstingas and Gifle near Bedford, the Hicce around Hitchin, the Cilternsæte in the Chilterns and the Feppingas near Thame (roughly corresponding to Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and southern Oxfordshire) HwicceOnce a kingdom in its own right, disputed with Wessex in the 7th century before finally coming under Mercian control  Smaller folk groups within included the Stoppingas around Warwick and the Arosæte near Droitwich (roughly corresponding to Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and southern Warwickshire) MagonsæteA people of the Welsh border, also known as the Westerna, under Mercian control from the 7th century  Smaller folk groups within included the Temersæte near Hereford and the Hahlsæte near Ludlow (roughly corresponding to Herefordshire and southern Shropshire) WreocansæteA people of the Welsh border under Mercian control from the 7th century  Smaller folk groups within included the Rhiwsæte near Wroxeter and the Meresæte near Chester (roughly corresponding to northern Shropshire, Flintshire and Cheshire) PecsæteAn isolated folk group of the Peak District, under Mercian control from the 7th century (roughly corresponding to northern Derbyshire) Land Between Ribble & MerseyA disorganised region under Mercian control from the 7th century (roughly corresponding to Merseyside, Greater Manchester, and Lancashire south of the River Ribble)  It was the most northern extent of the kingdom, and at certain times was claimed by Northumbria and Danelaw Middle SaxonsTaken over from Essex in the 8th century, including London (roughly corresponding to Greater London, Hertfordshire, and Surrey) After Mercia was annexed by Wessex in the early 10th century, the West Saxon rulers divided it into shires modelled after their own system, cutting across traditional Mercian divisions  These shires survived mostly intact until 1974, and even today still largely follow their original boundaries 

Legacy
Modern uses of the name Mercia
The term "midlands" is first recorded (as mydlonde-shiris) in 1475  John Bateman, writing in 1876 or 1883, referred to contemporary Cheshire and Staffordshire landholdings as being in Mercia  The most credible source for the idea of a contemporary Mercia is Thomas Hardy's Wessex novels  The first of these appeared in 1874 and Hardy himself considered it the origin of the conceit of a contemporary Wessex  Bram Stoker set his 1911 novel The Lair of the White Worm in a contemporary Mercia that may have been influenced by Hardy, whose secretary was a friend of Stoker's brother  Although 'Edwardian Mercia' never had the success of 'Victorian Wessex', it was an idea that appealed to the higher echelons of society  In 1908 Sir Oliver Lodge, Principal of Birmingham University, wrote to his counterpart at Bristol, welcoming a new university worthy of "   the great Province of Wessex whose higher educational needs it will supply  It will be no rival, but colleague and co-worker with this university, whose province is Mercia   " The British Army has made use of several regional identities in naming larger, amalgamated formations  After the Second World War, the infantry regiments of Cheshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire were organised in the Mercian Brigade (1948–1968)  Today, "Mercia" appears in the titles of two regiments, the Mercian Regiment, founded in 2007, which recruits in Cheshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Worcestershire, and parts of Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, and the Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry, founded in 1992 as part of the Territorial Army  In 1967, the police forces of Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire were combined into the West Mercia Constabulary, which changed its name to West Mercia Police in 2009 Telephone directories across the Midlands include a large number of commercial and voluntary organisations using "Mercia" in their names, and in 2012 a new football league was formed called the Mercian Regional Football League Free Radio Coventry & Warwickshire, a commercial radio station, was originally launched in 1980 as Mercia Sound, later becoming Mercia FM 

Symbolism and attributed heraldry
There is no authentic indigenous Mercian heraldic device, as heraldry did not develop in any recognizable form until the High Middle Ages The saltire as a symbol of Mercia may have been in use since the time of King Offa  By the 13th century, the saltire had become the attributed arms of the Kingdom of Mercia  The arms are blazoned Azure, a saltire Or, meaning a gold (or yellow) saltire on a blue field  The arms were subsequently used by the Abbey of St Albans, founded by King Offa of Mercia  With the dissolution of the Abbey and the incorporation of the borough of St Albans the device was used on the town's corporate seal and was officially recorded as the arms of the town at an heraldic visitation in 1634 The saltire is used as both a flag and a coat of arms  As a flag, it is flown from Tamworth Castle, the ancient seat of the Mercian Kings, to this day  The flag also appears on street signs welcoming people to Tamworth, the "ancient capital of Mercia"  It was also flown outside Birmingham Council House during 2009 while the Staffordshire Hoard was on display in the city before being taken to the British Museum in London  The cross has been incorporated into a number of coats of arms of Mercian towns, including Tamworth, Leek and Blaby  It was recognised as the Mercian flag by the Flag Institute in 2014 The silver double-headed eagle surmounted by a golden three-pronged Saxon crown has been used by several units of the British Army as a heraldic device for Mercia since 1958, including the Mercian Regiment  It is derived from the attributed arms of Leofric, Earl of Mercia in the 11th century  It is worth noting, however, that Leofric is sometimes attributed a black, single-headed eagle instead The wyvern, a type of dragon, came to have a strong association with Mercia in the 19th century  The Midland Railway, which used a white (silver) wyvern sans legs (legless) as its crest, having inherited it from the Leicester and Swannington Railway, asserted that the "wyvern was the standard of the Kingdom of Mercia", and that it was "a quartering in the town arms of Leicester"  The symbol appeared on numerous stations and other company buildings in the region, and was worn as a silver badge by all uniformed employees  However, in 1897 the Railway Magazine noted that there appeared "to be no foundation that the wyvern was associated with the Kingdom of Mercia"  It has been associated with Leicester since the time of Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster and Leicester (c  1278–1322), the most powerful lord in the Midlands, who used it as his personal crest, and was recorded in a heraldic visitation of the town in 1619 In Bram Stoker's 1911 novel The Lair of the White Worm, explicitly set in Mercia (see above), the Mercian white wyvern sans legs of the Midland Railway was transformed into a monstrous beast, the eponymous worm of the title  The word "worm" is derived from Old English wyrm and originally referred to a dragon or serpent  "Wyvern" derives from Old Saxon wivere, also meaning serpent, and is etymologically related to viper The ultimate source for the symbolism of white dragons in England would appear to be Geoffrey of Monmouth's fictional work,  The History of the Kings of Britain (c  1136), which recounts an incident in the life of Merlin where a red dragon is seen fighting a white dragon and prevailing  The red dragon was taken to represent the Welsh and their eventual victory over the Anglo-Saxon invaders, symbolised by the white dragon The philologist and Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey has suggested that the Middle Kingdom in J  R  R  Tolkien's Farmer Giles of Ham, a story dominated by a dragon, is based on Mercia, the part of England where Tolkien grew up  This dragon, Chrysophylax, though mostly hostile, eventually helps Giles found a realm of his own, the Little Kingdom  Shippey states further that "the Mark", the land of the Riders of Rohan – all of whom have names in the Mercian dialect of Old English – was once the usual term for central England, and it would have been pronounced and written "marc" rather than the West Saxon "mearc" or the Latinized "Mercia" 

See also
Lichfield
List of monarchs of Mercia
List of Anglo-Saxon Mercians
Mercian Old English
Mercian Trail
Old English
Repton Abbey
Staffordshire Hoard
Tamworth, Staffordshire
Wessex
Passage 12:
Brimpton
Brimpton is a mostly rural village and civil parish in West Berkshire, England  Brimpton is centred 4 5 miles (7 2 km) ESE of the town of Newbury 

Toponymy
One suggested origin of the name of Brimpton comes from "Brynni's Town"; Brynni was an Anglo-Saxon owner of the land  A more likely explanation is that Brimpton stands on a hill, and the name comes from a Saxo-Celtic version of "Hill Town"; the Celtic word for hill being "bryn"  This name was probably coined in reference to the Iron Age settlement Brimpton has also been recorded as Brinniggetun and Bryningtune (in the 10th century) and Brintone (in the 11th century)  More recent alternative names include Brinton, Brimton, Brumton and Brumpton 

Geography
The village occupies a few square miles of land south of the Kennet and Avon Canal and the A4 road, and north of the Enborne which forms the southern then the eastern boundary between slopes of an escarpment where the two parts of the village are concentrated: the nucleus of the village and Brimpton Common   On a lower slope 0 5 miles (0 80 km) south is Hyde End which has fewer than 12 farmhouses and Victorian cottages  Other villages nearby include Aldermaston and Woolhampton  A newer settlement in the parish, Brimpton Common is on the elevated south bank of the Enborne next to Ashford Hill with Headley in Hampshire  
The east of the village is part of the Wasing Manor Estate in Wasing and the village has a few outlying farms with a large minority of its land made up of the sloped woods including Inwood Copse, Chaplain's Wood and Hyde End Wood  Two  woods south of the village are managed for timber: Bannister's Wood and Arundell's Copse, the first of these is at the edge of the flood plain of the Enborne Brimpton Pit is a site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) 

History
Evidence of Bronze Age inhabitation of Brimpton is in the five round barrows and two bell barrows in the area leading up to the border with Baughurst to the south  Known as "Borson Barrows", the tumuli were referred to in an Anglo-Saxon charter in AD 944  There have also been Iron Age and Roman settlements identified within the parish  The hypocaust of a villa was uncovered in the village, though records of its exact location no longer exist  One possible location is opposite Brimpton House near the parish church  A mediaeval bronze steelyard weight was found in the garden of the old moated house at Brimpton Manor In the 10th century, 10 hides of land in Brimpton were given to Ordulf (or Ordwulf), a thegn of Edmund I  The Domesday Book of 1086 lists the village as "Brintone", and identifies Robert FitzGerald and Ralph de Mortimer as the lords of the manors of Shalford and Brimpton respectively  It also mentions two churches, three mills, and a dairy Brimpton was visited by William Cobbett on 30 October 1822 on his way to London; he noted its name as "Brimton", but did not write further about the village  John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870–1872) described Brimpton as "a parish in Newbury district, Berks; on the rivers Emborne and Kennet"  Wilson noted that the area of the village measured 1,692 acres (685 ha) and had property to the value of £3,720 (equivalent to £378,674 in 2021)  The population was 452, divided amongst 101 homes  He described the position of vicar including vicarage, at that time under the patronage of Rev  G B Caffin, as worth £351  He wrote that the church was "good", with charities of £84  Of its history Wilson noted that a preceptory of the Knights Templar (Shalford Preceptory) was established in Brimpton in the 13th century   A medieval roll has reference to the Hospitallers as holding land here in 1251 and again in 1275–6, when they are described as of Shalford  In 1302 the king appears to have been the guest of the Knights at Brimpton — his Letters Patent were dated from Shalford manor here 29 November, and the Hospitallers continued to hold this manor till their dissolution in 1540, when it was under the Dissolution of the Monasteries seized and redistributed by Henry VIII At the centre of the village is the war memorial commemorating the twenty two former residents who died in World War I and two who died in World War II 

Social history
The village relied heavily on agriculture which covers most of the district and employed more than half of the working population in the 19th century   St  Peter's almshouses for aged married couples and aged widows were erected by Anne Bankes, then Countess of Falmouth, who by her will left £3,000 for their repair, maintenance and inmates' support   She left almost £667 in the church's trust for the school mistress' salary (combined these are equivalent to £383,584 in 2021)  The trust fund, with accumulations, was for many years the most significant in the village and produced an income of almost £80 a year in 1924, when each inmate received a small pension of a fifth of a pound a week, with an extra payment at Christmas and Easter 

Lords of the Manor
Brimpton Manor
At the time of Edward the Confessor, Brimpton Manor was owned by Godwin, Earl of Wessex (Edward's father-in-law)  It was later owned by Ralph de Mortimer (at the time of the Domesday Survey) and, subsequently, his son Hugh  Hugh's son, Roger Mortimer of Wigmore, succeeded him as lord of the manor, and the ownership passed through the Mortimer of Wigmore family  The manor passed through marriage to the Earldom of March  Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March died childless in the 1420s and the manor was inherited by Richard, Duke of York  After his death in 1460, the manor was owned by his wife Cecily Neville, until its ownership was reverted to the crown on her death 

Shalford Manor
In the Domesday Survey, Shalford Manor was owned by Robert FitzGerald  It had previously been under the ownership of Brictric, a Saxon freeman and thegn to Edward the Confessor  After FitzGerald's death, his estates passed to his brother Gerald, and subsequently to Gerald's son, Roger  On Roger's death, his son – William de Roumare, Earl of Lincoln – inherited the manor  William's son predeceased him, so the manor passed to his grandson – also named William  During this ownership, Simon de Ovile – a tenant of William – granted use of the 3 5 hide estate to the Knights Hospitaller  Letters Patent dated 29 November 1302 show that the Knights hosted Edward I at Shalford The Knights held the manor until their dissolution in 1540  After this, ownership passed to the crown In 1544, Henry VIII exchanged the manor with William Wollascott for the manor of Dalehall in Lawford, Essex  Wollascott's son, also named William, purchased the manor of Brimpton in 1595  When he became lord of the manor upon his father's death in 1618, he became owner of both manors 

Demography
The mean age of residents was in 2001: 38 74, and the median was 40 

Religion
There have been at least three churches in Brimpton, two of which are still in use  The main Anglican church is dedicated to St Peter, and is a Grade II listed building  It was built in 1869 in designed in the 14th-century style  The flint building has a tower (with an octagonal shingled spire) and a wooden porch  The roof is tiled  The interior has a chancel, organ chamber, vestry, a nave with three bays and two aisles, and is faced with ashlar  The structural columns are granite  The belfry holds four bells, dating from 1624 to 1842  The oldest bell, the fourth, was recast by Mears and Stainbank in 1876 

The other operational church is Brimpton Baptist Church, which was established in 1843 The chapel of St Leonard, a 14th-century stone building, is located on Manor Farm  It was used as the place of worship of the Shalford Preceptory, a group of Knights Templar (and later Knights Hospitaller) who had formed in the 13th century  By 1614, the chapel had been converted into a barn at Brimpton Court 

Amenities
The village has a charity shop, a pub, The Three Horseshoes, and the village church  There is also a Church of England primary school  Brimpton Airfield, a mile east of the village, has a 620 metres (2,030 ft) grass runway for light aircraft 

Demography
Context 2: Passage 1:
Ricky Wilde
Ricky Wilde (born Richard James Reginald Steven Smith, 6 November 1961, sometimes credited as Ricki Wilde) is a British songwriter, musician, and record producer  He is the younger brother of singer Kim Wilde (the two are "Irish twins", having been born slightly less than one year apart); their father is singer-actor Marty Wilde 

Career
At the age of eleven, Wilde was signed by record producer Jonathan King to King's UK Records label, and released his first single in November 1972, called "I Am an Astronaut"  King became his mentor and had great faith in Wilde and groomed him for stardom as the teenybopper star of 1973  The children's magazine Look-in featured Wilde and Donny Osmond on the cover in June 1973 with the headline "Is Ricky Wilde the new Donny?"  Subsequent singles were "Do It Again, a Little Bit Slower", "I Wanna Go to a Disco" and "Teen Wave"   However, the singles were not successful in the UK, although he was featured in youth magazines at the time and appeared with his father alongside eleven years old pop rival Darren Burn in BBC Television's Man Alive documentary film Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, made in July 1973   He had some hits in Scandinavia and Spain at the time 
Recordings of new material in 1980 led to the 'discovery' of his sister Kim  Wilde's new role was that of producer and co-writer, a role he has fulfilled up until now  By his own admission, he was happy to be more in the background as of that moment   After Kim Wilde paused her career in pop music, Ricky Wilde continued to work in the music industry  In 2005 he was one of the initiators of the band, Sonic Hub, and of the record label Sonic Hub Records 
He co-directed the film Shoot The DJ, released in 2010 
"I Am an Astronaut" was covered by Snow Patrol for the Save the Children compilation album, Colours Are Brighter; it also featured as a B-side to their single "Open Your Eyes"  It was translated into Swedish, and recorded by nine-year-old Linus Wahlgren in 1985  The Swedish version was later covered by Wahlgren's nephew Benjamin Ingrosso in 2007, also at nine years of age   Ricky started a podcast with famous blogger Lee Bennett and Eastenders soap star Jake Wood called 'Unsung Heroes' talking to song writers and producers behind the scenes in the music industry 

Influences
Wilde has named Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) as "heroes" and a key source of inspiration  Other influences have included Ultravox, John Foxx, Gary Numan, Skids, Sex Pistols, the Clash, Kraftwerk and the Stranglers 
Passage 2:
Rendezvous at Big Gulch (Terror in the Neighborhood)
"Rendezvous at Big Gulch (Terror in the Neighborhood)" is the third episode produced (but fifth episode broadcast) of the short-lived TV series Police Squad!  The episode was directed by Reza Badiyi and written by Nancy Steen and Neil Thompson  As usual, the episode was produced by Robert K  Weiss 
The episode refers to Mommie Dearest (released by Paramount Pictures, whose television division produced Police Squad!), where a Joan Crawford lookalike pays off the mob at the "Mommie Dearest Day Care Center" Dutch Genderson is a clear spoof on the James Bond character Ernst Stavro Blofeld   He is introduced sitting in a chair stroking a cat, and his face is not initially revealed  Even his bending low upon his announcement, "When I'm through with him, he'll be dead!" is meant as a (more subtle) joke, since up to You Only Live Twice Blofeld's face is never seen in the movies 

Plot
Two gangsters, later revealed as Rocky and Leo, collect protection money from several local shops  A ballet teacher, Jill, cannot pay because of bad business and is beaten  Frank Drebin, the detective, interviews the woman but she seems reluctant to cooperate, saying she did not get a good look 
Frank and Ed discover the gangsters are working all across the country  Wanting to catch them in the act, Frank opens up a locksmith store along with fellow detective Norberg (a store that actually says on the window "A N  Abandoned Locksmith Shop ") 
Rocky and Leo's offer of protection is turned down  They assault the store with machine guns, which is not noticed until they toss in a rock with a note  Frank drives the rock (backwards) to the lab  Analysis of the note and the rock reveals nothing 
Rocky and Leo try to intimidate the two men again, but are beaten and left dazed on the street  The entire neighborhood sees this and cheers 
After Frank's victory, Leo and Rocky are seen talking with their boss Dutch Genderson, who tells them that when he's through with Frank, Frank will be dead 

Act II: Gesundheit
When Norberg has another delivery, a beautiful woman called Stella comes into the shop  She is trying to seduce Frank; she tells Frank she wants her key duplicated 50 times and that Frank can keep the 50th key himself (the other 49 are intended for the Chicago Bears)  Two weeks later, when Frank tries to open the door with his key, Stella starts shooting through the door  Frank, however, isn't behind the door, so when he comes in, he grabs Stella  The phone rings, and Stella is made to pick it up  The person calling is Dutch Genderson, providing Frank the opportunity to set up a trap for Dutch  After the call, Frank detains Stella on suspicion of attempting murder  Frank consults Johnny the Snitch, his go-to source of information, before meeting Dutch  Frank learns from Johnny about Dutch's unhappy upbringing  Dutch has only ever known the criminal underworld  Frank then asks Johnny for concrete evidence against Dutch  Johnny gives Frank some photostats that make Dutch look pretty dirty  When Frank arrives at Dutch's office, Dutch attempts to shoot Frank, but before he has a chance, Frank shows him the photostat that Johnny gave him  Instead of trying to arrest Dutch, Frank tries to become part of his organization  Dutch tells Frank to kill the old tailor as his first assignment  When going to the tailor's store, Leo and Rocky grab Frank and tell him that there has been a change of plans: they're hitting a dance teacher  When Frank comes in the other policemen have just left and Jill blows Frank's cover by calling him lieutenant  A big fight starts inside the ballet school  Frank wins the fight and tells Jill to call Police Squad 

Recurring jokes
Tonight's special guest star: Florence Henderson, gunned down while she was singing in the kitchen, surrounded by bottles of vegetable oil (she was a commercial spokesperson for Wesson Oil at the time)  Henderson later made a cameo appearance in Naked Gun 33+1⁄3: The Final Insult, as herself nominated for an Oscar 
Next week's experiment: Bring those magazines you found under your father's bed 
Johnny's next customer: A fireman wanting to know the best way to extinguish a furniture warehouse fire 
Freeze frame gag: When Ed pours Frank some coffee, the episode ends and the coffee spills all over the place 
Passage 3:
Tiger reserves of India
The tiger reserves of India were set up in 1973 and are governed under Project Tiger, which is administrated by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, Government of India  Tiger reserves were designated in 50 protected areas until 2018  
In 2022, the 53rd tiger reserve was declared in Ranipur Wildlife Sanctuary, Uttar Pradesh, and the State's third tiger reserve India is home to 80 percent of tigers in the world  In 2006, India estimated that there were 1,411 tigers which doubled to 3167 in 2022 The increase in population of tigers in India played a big role in driving up global populations as well; the number of wild tigers globally rose from 3,159 in 2010 to 3,890 in 2016 according to World Wildlife Fund and Global Tiger Forum 

Goal
State forestry departments operate 71,027 1 km2 (27,423 7 sq mi) of declared reserves "to ensure maintenance of viable populations of the conservation dependent Bengal tigers in India"  The tigers are maintained for their scientific, economic, aesthetic, cultural and ecological values and to preserve for all time areas of biological importance as a national heritage for the benefit, educational purposes "

Population assessment
By the year 2018, according to the National Tiger Conservation Authority, there were estimated only 2,967 tigers in existence in India  The 2010 National Tiger Assessment estimated the total population of tigers in India at 1,706   As per Ministry of Environment and Forests, the tiger population in India stood at 2,226 in 2014 with an increase of 30 5% since the 2010 estimate  This exhaustive study indicated that better protected tiger source sites, especially tiger reserves, have maintained viable populations  However, the area occupied by tigers outside protected areas has decreased considerably  This demonstrates the need for corridors in order for tigers to move between source sites  The existing tiger reserves represent around one-third of India's high density forest area  More tigers were killed in the first quarter of 2016 than in the entire previous year  This significant revelation comes at a time when the tiger census numbers are disputed by the scientific community 
In 2010–11, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in partnership with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) undertook an independent management effectiveness evaluation (MEE) of the 53 tiger reserves in the country  The reserves were categorized into four major categories  Madhya pradesh has the highest number of tigers(526) in the age group of 1 5 years with more than 408 big cats  Other states with significant populations include Karnataka (524), Uttarakhand (442),  Tamil Nadu (229), Maharashtra (190), Assam (167), Kerala (136) and Uttar Pradesh (117) 

List of tiger reserves
Note that Amangarh Tiger Reserve in Uttar Pradesh is a buffer zone of Jim Corbett National Park, and may not be regarded as a separate tiger reserve  It has a buffer zone of 80 6 km2 (31 1 sq mi) but no core area of critical tiger habitat 

Future
In addition to existing reserves, the in-principle approval has been accorded by the National Tiger Conservation Authority for the creation of two new tiger reserves, namely Ratapani Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh and Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary in Bihar  Final approval has been accorded to Kudremukh National Park to be declared as a tiger reserve  The State Governments have been advised to send proposals for declaring the following areas as tiger reserves: Suhelva Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh, Mhadei Sanctuary in Goa, Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh and Cauvery-MM Hills in Karnataka 
Passage 4:
The Goddess of Sagebrush Gulch
The Goddess of Sagebrush Gulch is a 1912 American short silent Western film directed by D  W  Griffith and starring Blanche Sweet 

Cast
See also
D  W  Griffith filmography
Blanche Sweet filmography
Passage 5:
Wild Women
Wild Women may refer to:

Wild Women (1918 film), an American comedy western film
Wild Women (1951 film), an American adventure film directed by Norman Dawn
Wild Women (1970 film), an American television western film
Wild Women (song), a single by Michael Learns to Rock

See also
Wild Women: Gentle Beasts, a 2015 feature documentary
Passage 6:
Sharks' Treasure
Sharks' Treasure is a 1975 American adventure film written, produced and directed by Cornel Wilde and starring Cornel Wilde and Yaphet Kotto 

Plot
Eccentric charter skipper Jim Carnahan (Cornel Wilde) and his team of hard-luck dreamers battle sharks, bandits and their own greed to recover sunken treasure off the coast of Honduras 

Cast
Cornel Wilde as Jim Carnahan
Yaphet Kotto as Ben Flynn
John Neilson as Ron
Cliff Osmond as Lobo
David Canary as Larry
David Gilliam as Juanito

Production
Wilde says he came up with the idea for the film in 1969 but could not raise the finance until Jaws  "I would rather have had the field to ourselves, without Jaws," he said He called the film "a very down to earth treasure hunting story of today    It shows guys who get hooked on to a real find, hock everything they have, give up jobs    The characters and incidents are based on a lot of true accounts "Much of the film was shot near Bonaire in the Dutch Antilles "It was the most dangerous picture I've ever worked on," said Wilde  "Working 70 feet underwater, surrounded by sharks, you're pressured by all sorts of possible hazards    but I was much more excited than I was afraid "

Reception
The Los Angeles Times called the film "crude, violent, energetic and usual "After seven weeks of release in three major markets in the United States, including California and Florida, the film had grossed $2 million 

"Money, Money"
The opening theme song "Money, Money" was written by Wilde (under the pseudonym Jefferson Pascal) and sung by British musician and voice of the much-loved children's character Postman Pat, Ken Barrie 
Passage 7:
Growing Up American
Growing Up American: How Vietnamese Children Adapt to Life in the United States, by Min Zhou and Carl L  Bankston III is one of the most influential books on the Vietnamese American experience  Published in 1998 by the Russell Sage Foundation, it is widely used in college classes on international migration, contemporary American history, and Asian Studies  The book emphasizes the role of Vietnamese communities in promoting the adaptation of Vietnamese American young people  
One of the unique characteristics of the book is its combination of a general history of the growth and nature of Vietnamese American communities around the United States with an in-depth study of one specific Vietnamese community, on the eastern edge of New Orleans, Louisiana 

Organization of the book
Chapter 1 traces the history of Vietnamese settlement in the United States, giving special attention to how the process of refugee resettlement and popular opinions of the American public have influenced Vietnamese American children  Chapter 2 gives a description of the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the U S  Vietnamese population and describes the social and economic challenges facing the Vietnamese  Chapter 3 offers examples of how families and surrounding ethnic communities can serve as sources of social capital for young people  Chapter 4 discusses the patterns of social and kinship relations in Vietnamese ethnic communities  Here, Zhou and Bankston develop their theory that ethnic social relations can serve as a form of social capital for young people growing up in immigrant communities  Chapter 5 examines how Vietnamese language abilities promote the adaptation of young Vietnamese to American society by connecting them to the supports of their families and communities  Chapter 6 considers Vietnamese American adaptation to American schools and argues that generally high levels of school performance are products of tightly integrated ethnic communities  Chapter 7 examines bicultural conflict and gender role issues faced by Vietnamese growing up in the United States  Chapter 8 discusses peer group associations and problems of juvenile delinquency  It provides evidence that young people who follow delinquent patterns tend to be those who assimilate to the youth culture of Vietnamese and other subgroups, rather than remain bound within their ethnic communities  Chapter 9 gives a general summary and offers conclusions of relevance to the study of immigrant and minority groups in the United States 

Critical reception
Growing Up American has received widespread critical praise  Writing in the journal Social Forces, reviewer Jiannbin Shiao described the analysis of delinquency in the Vietnamese community as “contestable but refreshingly bold” and described it as “a fine contribution to the sociology of education, social stratification, social demography, Asian American Studies, and, one hopes, also U S  urban policy ” In the International Migration Review, Kimberly Goyette praised the book for “…elaborat[ing] a detailed and elegant framework for conceptualizing the relationship between children and their various environments and also the relationship between these environments ” Kelly Chong, reviewing the book for the American Journal of Sociology, observed “this comprehensive investigation of the adaptation process of second generation Vietnamese in the United States fills an important gap in the study of contemporary “new” immigrants and the second generation assimilation experience ”
In addition to the praise, though, reviewers have also had some reservations  In particular, critics have questioned the generalizability of the books findings to other ethnic groups and they have suggested the book may be too optimistic in its account of the future of young Vietnamese Americans  Critics of more radical orientations have often objected the authors’ acceptance of American society and the focus on adapting to that society  For example, Karin Aguilar-San Juan, in the book Little Saigons: Staying Vietnamese in America, accuses Zhou and Bankston of ignoring the processes of racialization and systemic racism in encouraging Asian immigrant achievement while frustrating black American achievement 

Awards
1999 Thomas and Znaniecki Award, Outstanding Book in International Migration, American Sociological Association
2000 Distinguished Book Award, Mid-South Sociological Association

See also
Asian American
Diaspora studies
List of U S  cities with large Vietnamese American populations
List of Vietnamese Americans
Little Saigon
Overseas Vietnamese
Refugees
Vietnamese people

External links
Article title
Article title
http://tulane edu/liberal-arts/sociology/carlbankston cfm
http://www eric ed gov/PDFS/ED439180 pdf
http://blogs bauer uh edu/vietDiaspora/contributors-5/
Passage 8:
The Gospel Bill Show
The Gospel Bill Show is a Christian-values based television show that was produced by Willie George Ministries from June 4, 1981 to May 12, 1993   (Later episodes were titled as Adventures in Dry Gulch but featured the same characters and premise )
During its main run it was broadcast on the CBN and TBN networks   It is currently seen in syndication on the Daystar and Smile of a Child networks, and on other small independent Christian television stations 
It was also broadcast on the Australian Christian Channel in Australia 

Characters
Gospel Bill (Willie George) – the sheriff of Dry Gulch  Bill serves both as representative of the law and as moral guidance counselor to the citizens of Dry Gulch 
Nicodemus (Ken Blount) – deputy and sidekick of Gospel Bill, also the foreman at a local ranch  Nicodemus was once a drunk of ill-repute who was sobered up by Bill and reaffirmed as a born-again Christian  Nicodemus is easily swayed by various shysters, but Gospel Bill serves as his moral compass when temptations arise 
Miss Lana (Lana Osborn) – runs the town's general store, which doubles as a telegraph office  She serves as the town's maternal figure, although in the series she is not known to have any husband or children 
Elmer Barnes (Jeff Merrill) – a citizen of Dry Gulch who is friends with the main characters  He is portrayed as somewhat mentally challenged and is often confused on Biblical matters  He has two pet worms, Inky and Dinky (which he often carries on his person, though they are largely unseen characters) and his primary concern is "goin' fishin'" 
Theodore Ulysses (T  U ) Tutwater (Daine Demaree) – the mayor of Dry Gulch as well as the president of the Dry Gulch Bank and Trust  He represented secular interests (such as pride and greed) and usually mocked Gospel Bill's religious views, though he would not engage in illegal acts  In later episodes, Demaree (who moved to California to pastor a church) was replaced by John Witty and the character's name was changed to T  W  Tutwater 
Luther Bedlow (also played by Willie George, but credited as "himself") – the stock villain of the show  He usually attempts to engage in criminal activity but is always foiled by Gospel Bill 
Orville Cornpone (Rodney Lynch) – served in early episodes as Bedlow's dim-witted henchman who would usually cause Bedlow to be unsuccessful in his criminal activities  Cornpone later became a Christian (courtesy of Gospel Bill) and thereafter played a morally upstanding character (though Bedlow would attempt to recruit him back to villainy) 
Wichita Slim (Kenneth Copeland) – a tough as nails, but gentlemanly U S  Marshall who comes through town and helps with the most difficult problems they occasionally face 
Miss Trudi Lou (Trudi Blount) – a minor character to whom Nicodemus often refers as the woman he hopes to woo someday  (Trudi Blount is Ken Blount's real life wife )
Ferman Farnsworth (also played by Willie George; but often credited as "himself") – a minor character (though often referenced) who owns the ranch where Nicodemus works 
Barkamaeus (Keith Holey) – an anthropomorphic human-sized talking dog who wore a cowboy hat and vest  He only appeared in early episodes of the show Before the Elmer Barnes character was introduced, Jeff Merrill appeared on early episodes of the show as a geological surveyor, who advised Luther Bedlow of gold deposits to be found underneath Dry Gulch 
John Witty and Rodney Lynch also appeared as the town doctor in several episodes 

Premise
The Gospel Bill Show was set in the fictional town of Dry Gulch, portrayed as being in the Old West  However, there were many anachronistic references to the present day, such as television and answering machine, which did not exist back when the show was supposed to be set  Dry Gulch was so named because the citizens voted it as a "dry" city (i e , one which prohibited alcohol sales) 

Format
The show would center around a topic, where Gospel Bill would be heavily involved in providing moral guidance to one of the citizens (usually Nicodemus or Elmer Barnes) and/or preventing catastrophe (mainly stopping Luther Bedlow's criminal activities) 

Oogene and Jeannie Mae segments
A typical episode would be interrupted several times by puppet segments depicting Biblical stories as well as the adventures of Oogene, a young boy who squabbles with his sister Jeannie Mae (but the fights are always resolved by a moral lesson) and narrates "Oogene at the Zoo", in which Oogene studies an animal and relates its role to a lesson from the Bible ("Oogene at the Farm" replaced the "Oogene at the Zoo" segment in some later episodes)  Segments with Oogene and Jeannie tend to be unique, but the zoo and farm field pieces are repeated frequently throughout the series as filler for the show  Willie George voiced the majority of the various puppet skits, most notably Oogene and his sister Jeannie Mae 

Music video and lesson
The episode would also feature a Christian song and music video (usually by Ken Blount) towards the end of the show  Sometimes he would appear in character as Nicodemus, but often he will appear as himself, singing about a dramatic story which is acted out by others  Some of the music videos not contributed by Blount included the songs, "We've Got the Power" by long-time KCM worship leader Len Mink and "It's God" by Kellie Copeland Swisher (daughter of Kenneth Copeland), as well as "A Merry Heart" where Blount is joined by unnamed puppets wearing blue and orange-striped shirts  An unknown band was occasionally seen opposite Blount in some later videos 
At the end of most shows, Gospel Bill reappeared with props in hand to spell out a lesson to the viewer, generally relating to the main plot of the episode  He would often use the props as a visual aid to demonstrate a particular concept he is emphasizing  In some later episodes, Nicodemus will give the lesson instead of Gospel Bill 

Adventures in Dry Gulch
Later episodes of the show were titled as "Adventures in Dry Gulch" rather than "The Gospel Bill Show", many of which did not feature Willie George at all  Instead, Nicodemus would be in charge while Gospel Bill is "out of town" on some unspecified task 

DVD availability
The series is available for DVD purchase through George's church website  Episodes included in the collection include;

God Gives Back - Ken Blount: In the Name of Jesus -At the threat of losing her store, Miss Lana chooses to obey God with the tithe and trust Him to provide 
There's Still Hope - Ken Blount: Know You're a Christian -When Gospel Bill brings a desperate bank robber to justice, Miss Lana believes the robber can be saved when no one else does 
Power of Agreement - At the Zoo with Oogene: Ostrich - Ken Blount: You Are My Inspiration -A bizarre accident leaves Gospel Bill with amnesia  Nicodemus and Miss Lana respond with the prayer of agreement 
He Sent His Word and Healed Them - Ken Blount: All Hail King Jesus -Gospel Bill speaks God's Word when a local family is threatened with a contagious disease 
Don't Trust in Riches - Ken Blount: Worship and Adore Thee -Eager to make a profit, Tutwater loses all of his money in a bad mining investment 
The Worst Temptation -In an effort to make Gospel Bill leave Dry Gulch, Luther Bedlow and Cornpone try to lure him away with temptations 
To Cheat or Not, Part 1 -Luther Bedlow uses Cornpone as a pawn in the local sheriff's election, and they buy votes with bribes 
To Cheat or Not, Part 2 - Ken Blount: You Are My Inspiration -After an unfair election, Gospel Bill must help the new sheriff deal with outlaws and save the day 
All Things Through Christ - Len Mink: We've Got The Power -Gospel Bill must find a way to reveal a mysterious thief's identity and catch him in the act 
Praise God When Trouble Comes -Gospel Bill experiences trouble at every turn and has to decide whether he will complain or praise God 
To Tell the Truth - Ken Blount: Nothing But the Blood -Elmer takes dating advice from Nicodemus, but he stretches the truth in order to make a good impression 
Receiving by Faith - Ken Blount: You Are My Inspiration -When two outlaws injure Gospel Bill, his friends must pray and stand in faith for his healing 
It Pays to Work -Elmer needs money, but he fails to display a good work ethic when Miss Lana gives him a job 
The New Birth -Gospel Bill recounts his lawless days before Christ to show Elmer that Jesus can change anyone 
The Reward of Stinginess -Tutwater misses out on God's blessing when he allows a stingy spirit to keep him from giving at church 
The Power of the Tongue -Nicodemus activates the power of God's Word for healing, and Gospel Bill uses the Word to help him outsmart a gunman 
Treasures in Heaven -Luther Bedlow and Cornpone hear of a treasure, so they kidnap Nicodemus in an effort to find it 
If God Be for Us -When Gospel Bill heads out of town, Nicodemus is left in charge and learns to conquer his fears 
Agreement Equals Power -Gospel Bill and Nicodemus believe God for the money Nic needs in order to save his mother's farm 
Overcoming Faith -Gospel Bill, Nicodemus, Miss Lana, and Elmer all use their faith in order to overcome obstacles in their way 
Control Your Thoughts - At the Zoo with Oogene: Koala Bear - Ken Blount: Don't Let the Devil Steal Your Joy -Nicodemus and Elmer nearly come to blows when Elmer tries to court Miss Trudi Lou 
Babies Make Mistakes -After falling back into an old habit, a new Christian learns what it means to persevere in spite of mistakes 
Elmer Finds His Gift -When faced with growing debts and no job, Elmer discovers his true gift 
There's No Such Thing As Monsters -Gospel Bill has to set Tutwater straight about a monster story and find the prankster responsible 
Never Give Up -Fed up with how hard Farnsworth is working him, Nicodemus decides to quit his job 
Deadly Disobedience - At the Zoo with Oogene: Ostrich - Ken Blount feat  Unnamed Puppets: A Merry Heart -A young boy's life is in jeopardy when he disobeys his mother and falls into a mine shaft 
Nic and the Faith Saddle -Nicodemus needs a new saddle for a cowboy contest, so Gospel Bill encourages him to believe God for it 
Rejoice in the Lord -When everything goes wrong with his day, Nicodemus has to choose whether or not he will praise God 
Angels Watching over Me -In dealing with his fear of the unknown, Elmer finds out that angels are watching over him 
Put Off Temptation -Luther Bedlow and Tutwater join forces and try to bribe Gospel Bill so he will influence the townspeople 
The Root of Bitterness -Miss Lana is tempted to become bitter when Tutwater accuses her of selling shoddy merchandise 
Words of Healing -Gospel Bill speaks words of healing on behalf of his Uncle Pete, but Elmer brings sickness upon himself with a negative confession 
How to Make Friends - At the Zoo with Oogene: Elephant - Ken Blount: J-E-S-U-S
Freed from Sin - At the Zoo with Oogene: Orangutan - Ken Blount: In the Name of Jesus
The Jealous Mistake - At the Zoo with Oogene: Ostrich - Ken Blount: All Hail King Jesus
The Spirit of Giving - At the Zoo with Oogene: Red Kangaroo - Ken Blount: Forget All Those Things
The Love of Money - At the Zoo with Oogene: Bengal Tiger - Ken Blount: Joy, Joy, Joy
The Christmas That Almost Wasn't - At the Zoo with Oogene: Grizzly Bear - Ken Blount: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
The Wicked Man's Trap - At the Zoo with Oogene: Jaguar - Ken Blount: Nothing But the Blood
The Missionary Journey - At the Zoo with Oogene: Animal Zoo Review - Ken Blount: In the Name of Jesus
Feed Your Spirit - At the Zoo with Oogene: Jaguar - Ken Blount: Fear Not
Praise Beats Complaining - At the Zoo with Oogene: Ostrich - Ken Blount: Don't Let the Devil Steal Your Joy
Believe the Best - At the Farm with Oogene: Horse
Pride Comes Before Trouble - At the Zoo with Oogene: Zebra - Ken Blount: Fear Not
Honesty - At the Zoo with Oogene: Flamingo - Ken Blount: Nothing But the Blood
Peer Pressure - At the Zoo with Oogene: Red Kangaroo - Ken Blount: Fear Not
Gorilla Prank
The New Man (introducing the Wichita Slim character played by Kenneth Copeland) - At the Zoo with Oogene: Animal Zoo Review - Kellie Copeland: It's God
By His Stripes - At the Zoo with Oogene: Jaguar - Ken Blount: All Hail King Jesus
The Fugitive, Part 1 - At the Zoo with Oogene: White Rhinoceros
The Fugitive, Part 2 - At the Zoo with Oogene: Polar Bear
Control Your Temper - At the Zoo with Oogene: Bengal Tiger - Ken Blount: In the Name of Jesus

Spin-offs
Willie George Ministries launched three direct-to-video spin-offs of The Gospel Bill show: The Candy Store, Bill Gunter, U S  Marshal, and The Cimarron Trail 

Dry Gulch, U S A 
Shortly after The Gospel Bill Show first aired, Willie George opened Dry Gulch, U S A  (now known as New Life Ranch Frontier Cove) in Adair, Oklahoma, a Western-themed Christian children's summer camp nestled near Lake Hudson with over 1 25 miles of shoreline 

Bill Gunter, U S  Marshal
A more traditional western-style program that was shot on location at Dry Gulch, U S A  Gospel Bill is renamed Bill Gunter, while the other characters retain their names  Bill Gunter, U S  Marshal is not as campy as The Gospel Bill Show, and takes itself much more seriously  The show was sold strictly as part of a video club and was sold at Church on the Move later on as well 
Bill Gunter is a United States Marshall in the difficult days of the Oklahoma Indian Territory  Striving to maintain a strong Christian testimony in the midst of lawlessness, Gunter is a powerful role model for young children  The action, excitement and romance of the Old West combined with solid Biblical principles for the unforgettable viewing experience

The Candy Store
The Candy Store was a television show that was a tie-in to The Gospel Bill Show that shared some of that show's characters  It was a program for pre-schoolers that featured Miss Lana and Nicodemus as well as a newcomer, Lefty Wright (Jim Wideman) 
Characters

Miss Lana
Nicodemus
Elmer Barnes
Barkimaeus, The Faith Dog
Lefty Wright
Miss Trudi Lou
Wendell, the WoodchuckEpisode Titles

A: is for Abraham
B: is For Bible
C: is for Christ
D: is for David
E: is for Esther
F: is for Faith
G: is for Grace
H: is for Heaven
I: is for You
J: is for Jesus
K: is for Kindness
L: is for Love
M: is for Miracle
N: is for Noah
O: is for Obey
P: is for Prayer
Q: is for Queen
R: is for Rejoice
S: is for Sickness (Healing)
T: is for Temple
U: is for Unbelief
V: is for Victory
W: is for Wealth
XYZ: is the End

The Cimarron Trail
Contrary to popular belief this show was not a new series but was actually the Bill Gunter U S  Marshal series renamed  Pastor George had wanted the series to be called this originally but when shooting for the series began it was relayed to him that the name The Cimarron Trail was copyrighted and could not be used for the name  While Pastor George did not like using the name Bill Gunter U S  Marshall it was the name chosen at the time  Later on towards the end of the series it was found out that the name The Cimarron Trail was not taken or copyrighted so the series was renamed as Pastor Willie George had wanted it to be 

The Wichita Slim Trilogy
In addition to the aforementioned spin-offs, there were also three related movies  The cast was left mainly intact, but the Gospel Bill/Bill Gunter character was now teamed up with (now U S  Marshall) Wichita Slim (Kenneth Copeland) 

The Gunslinger, which revolves around a shooting where Wichita Slim is injured and loses his memory, causing him to temporarily revert to his outlaw ways  (This was the only movie in the trilogy to be completed during the show's run)
Covenant Rider involves the two Marshalls efforts to rescue Bill Gunter's nephew, who was kidnapped by outlaws associated with Saul Gillespe (guest star: fellow televangelist Jesse Duplantis) 
The Treasure of Eagle Mountain concerns a treasure left by a retired (and seriously wounded) lawman to his jaded son, and the efforts to find it  (The name is a reference to Eagle Mountain Lake, located near Copeland's ministry headquarters northwest of Fort Worth, Texas )

See also
Fire By Nite (another Christian youth television program from Willie George)
Passage 9:
Built for the Kill
Built for the Kill is a nature series made by Granada Wild for the National Geographic Channel  It was produced from 2001 to 2004, with a total of 31 episodes  Each episode runs for approximately 48 minutes including the credits and opening titles 

Format
Episodes of Built For The Kill cover a topic or habitat for predatory animals, such as "Coral Reef" or "Packs"  If the episode is the name of a Habitat (Coral Reef), the episode will feature predators from that environment  If the episode's name is something like "Jaws" or "Packs", it will feature predators who utilize the name of the episode  Built For The Kill uses a graphical approach to catch the audiences attention, often showing inner workings of the predatory animals (e g  showing a snake's "Jacobson Organ" inside its mouth) by using diagrams  Some effects seen are used to show the audience what they can't really see, but is there (such as the electricity coming from an Electric Ray or the sound waves used in Echo Location)  This graphical approach to nature is meant to make the documentary more interesting to watch 
Built for the Kill's classic opening was a montage of creatures featured in the first 7 episodes (Desert, Coral Reef, Rainforest, Grassland, Miniature, Swamp and Ocean) with a catchy theme song  This opening was changed further into the series to one that shows the National Geographic logo in various parts  The theme song stayed the same however 
In 2011 National Geographic Channel resurrect the show with four new episodes  However, the four episodes were presented with a slightly different style than the original  The following four episodes are (lion, great white shark, polar bear, and crocodile) and is expected to be continued 

Episodes
Home releases
(2005, Europe, 2 Discs)01 Claws
02 Killer Canines
03 Jaws
04 Packs
05 Speed

Collection 1 (2009, Australia, 4 Discs)
01 Desert
02 Coral Reef
03 Rainforest
04 Grassland
05 Miniature
06 Swamp
07 Ocean
08 Cold
09 Night
10 Island

Collection 2 (2010, Australia, 4 Discs)
01 Forest
02 River
03 Hidden
04 Chase
05 Poison
06 Ambush
07 Birds of Prey
08 Cat
09 Shark
10 Snake

Related National Geographic programs
Dangerous Encounters
Battle at Kruger

External links
https://web archive org/web/20120508011716/http://natgeotv com/uk/built-for-the-kill
https://web archive org/web/20100131091012/http://www locatetv com/tv/built-for-the-kill
Built for the Kill at IMDb
Passage 10:
Whiskeytown, California
Whiskeytown was an unincorporated community in Shasta County, California, United States  Although once a bustling mining town, it was flooded to make way for Whiskeytown Lake in 1962, now part of Whiskeytown–Shasta–Trinity National Recreation Area  All that remains is the relocated store, a few residences, mostly occupied by National Recreation Area personnel, and old mines that are above the water level of the lake  Whiskeytown is registered as a California Historical Landmark 

History
Whiskeytown was one of Shasta County's first gold mining settlements during the California Gold Rush of 1849, though at the time it was called Whiskey Creek Diggings  There are two different stories for how the settlement got its name: The first states that a barrel of whiskey fell from a pack mule and into the creek that ran by Whiskeytown; the second attributes the name to the legend that miners at Whiskeytown could drink a barrel of the hard liquor a day The area became known as a source for gold  The Redding Record Searchlight reports miners averaged $50 in gold per day, and in 1851 a 56-ounce gold nugget was found  The first woman arrived in town in 1852, and by 1855, about 1,000 gold miners lived in Whiskeytown  The post office was opened in 1856, but the federal government didn't allow the Whiskeytown name to be attached to it because it was considered inappropriate  Finally, in 1952, the federal government agreed to name the post office after the town Construction of the Whiskeytown Dam began in 1960, and the basin began to fill with water in 1962



ground_truth: 918

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Who wrote a book about growing up in the same nationality as the man who produced The Wild Women of Chastity Gulch?

The following are given passages.
Context 2:  Some Whiskeytown buildings were moved to higher ground, but others remain underwater  The dam was dedicated by President John F  Kennedy in 1963 

Present day
Today, what was once a bustling mining town is a popular lake and recreation area  Whiskeytown Lake, part of the Central Valley Project, draws people looking to swim, sail, kayak, or fish, among other activities  On clear days, the outlines of buildings that were once Whiskeytown can be seen at the bottom of the lake, according to the Redding Record Searchlight Whiskeytown Cemetery was moved during the construction of the dam  All the graves were exhumed and transported to higher ground  Today, Whiskeytown Cemetery is maintained by locals and is somewhat of a hidden tourist destination as well, due to its unusual and festive decor  Graves are decorated with flowers as well as trinkets such as toys or the deceased's favorite snacks or cocktails 
Passage 11:
A Kid for Two Farthings
A Kid for Two Farthings may refer to:

A Kid for Two Farthings (novel)
A Kid for Two Farthings (film)
Passage 12:
The Wild Women of Chastity Gulch
The Wild Women of Chastity Gulch is a 1982 American made-for-television Western romantic comedy film directed by Philip Leacock and starring Priscilla Barnes, Lee Horsley, Joan Collins, Donny Osmond, Morgan Brittany, and Lisa Whelchel  Executive produced by Aaron Spelling, it premiered on ABC on October 31, 1982, and was later syndicated to cable television for rebroadcast 

Synopsis
In Civil War-era Southern Missouri, Dr  Maggie McCullough travels to the aid of her ailing aunt, Annie, the town's madame, in the lovely community of Sweetwater   With all of the men away at war, Maggie coordinates a truce between Aunt Annie's girls and the respectable women of the town   While Maggie contemplates the love triangle that is formed with an injured Union fighter, Frank Isaacs, and a captured Confederate doctor, Captain John Cane, a demented faction of soldiers invades Sweetwater and the women must spring into action to defend their homes 

Cast
Priscilla Barnes      Maggie McCulloch
Lee Horsley      Captain John Cain
Joan Collins      Annie McCulloch
Howard Duff      Colonel Samuel Isaacs
Morgan Brittany      Lannie
Donny Osmond      Frank Isaacs
Lisa Whelchel      Amy Cole
Pamela Bellwood      Sarah
Phyllis Davis      Sugar Harris
Jeanette Nolan      Gertrude
Paul Brinegar      Bodie
Dennis Fimple      Lamont
Susan Kellermann      Betsy
Paul Carr      Confederate Captain
Rex Holman      Lt  Pritchard
Rayford Barnes      Russell
Steve Hanks      Lt  James
Tom Clark      Matthew
Robert Rymill      Sam
Jerry J  Lewandowski      Tommy
Scott Arthur Allen      Tom Trombitas

See also
List of television films produced for American Broadcasting Company
Passage 13:
Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling (April 22, 1923 –  June 23, 2006) was an American film and television producer and occasional actor  His productions included the TV series Family (1976–1980), Charlie's Angels (1976–1981), The Love Boat (1977–1986), Hart to Hart (1979–1984), Dynasty (1981–1989), Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990–2000), Melrose Place (1992–1999), 7th Heaven (1996–2007), and Charmed (1998–2006)  He also served as producer of The Mod Squad (1968–1973), The Rookies (1972–1976), and Sunset Beach (1997–1999) 
Through his production company Spelling Television, Spelling holds the record as the most prolific television producer in US television history, with 218 producer and executive producer credits  Forbes ranked him the 11th top-earning deceased celebrity in 2009 

Early life
Spelling was born in Dallas, Texas  He was the son of Pearl (née Wald) and David Spelling, Russian Jewish immigrants  His father worked as a tailor and changed his surname from Spurling to Spelling after emigrating to the United States  Spelling was the youngest of five children  He had three older brothers: Maxwell “Max” Seltzer (circa 1909–?), Sam Spelling (1916–2001) and Daniel Spelling (1921–2009) and an older half-sister, Becky Seltzer Giller (1910–1978) At the age of eight, Spelling psychosomatically lost the use of his legs due to trauma caused by constant anti-semitic bullying from his schoolmates, and was confined to bed for a year  He made a full recovery After attending Forest Avenue High School in Dallas, he served in the United States Army Air Corps as a pilot during World War II 
Spelling later graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1949, where he was a cheerleader 

Career
Spelling made his first appearance as an actor in a film as Harry Williams in Vicki, directed by Harry Horner, in 1953  That same year, he appeared in the TV series I Led Three Lives and Dragnet (six episodes, 1953–55)  Spelling appeared in episode 112 of I Love Lucy ("Tennessee Bound," season 4, 1955) and Alfred Hitchcock Presents ("Breakdown", 1955) , as Weed Pindle in Gunsmoke's season one, episode 35, "The Guitar" (1956); He continued to appear in films and TV (often uncredited) over 25 times by 1957, appearing briefly as an actor in 1963, 1995, and 1998 (all uncredited )Spelling sold his first script to Jane Wyman Presents in 1954  He guest-starred that same year as a dogcatcher in the premiere episode of the CBS situation comedy, Willy, starring June Havoc as a young lawyer in New Hampshire, who later relocates to New York City to represent a vaudeville troupe Two years later, Spelling gained experience as a producer and additional credits as a script writer working for Four Star Television on the series Zane Grey Theater, which aired between 1956 and 1961  Of the 149 episodes in that series, he wrote 20 of the teleplays and produced many others  Spelling produced Burke's Law while at Four Star   The show was the first success for Spelling and pioneered the multiple guest star format, later seen on The Love Boat and Fantasy Island  Thomas-Spelling Productions was a television production company formed by comedian Danny Thomas and producer Aaron Spelling on April 15, 1966, as a partnership with 24 properties  Thomas continued his existing partnership, T&L Productions, with Sheldon Leonard  The company adapted its name by July 18, 1966, when it announced the financial involvement of ABC with its first show, Range (later Rango), a half-hour comedy western starring Tim Conway and its rented space on Desilu Productions' Gower lot  ABC also picked up another show for a pilot, just in an outline treatment, in The Guns of Will Sonnett   Thomas-Spelling Productions' active operations ended with the last season of The Mod Squad in 1972   Spelling formed a new partnership with Leonard Goldberg, Spelling-Goldberg Productions 
Beginning in 1965, Spelling began producing successful television shows including The Mod Squad, The Rookies, Family, Charlie's Angels, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Dynasty, Beverly Hills, 90210 (which starred his daughter Tori), Melrose Place, 7th Heaven, Charmed, Jane's House and Sunset Beach  Spelling founded Spelling Entertainment in 1965, alongside partnerships with comedian/actor Danny Thomas (Thomas-Spelling Productions, 1966–1972), and television/film producer Leonard Goldberg (Spelling-Goldberg Productions, 1972–1986) He produced the unsuccessful situation comedy The San Pedro Beach Bums in 1977 
In 2004, Spelling was portrayed in two television movies: Dan Castellaneta portrayed Spelling in Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Charlie's Angels, and Nicholas Hammond portrayed Spelling in television movie Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure 

Personal life
Spelling married actress Carolyn Jones in 1953, in California when he was 30 and she was 23  They divorced in 1964  He briefly dated actress Jill Haworth when he was 42 and she was 19  Spelling married Candy Gene (née Marer) in 1968 when he was 45 and she was 23  The couple had daughter Tori in 1973 and son Randy in 1978 In 1988, Spelling bought the 6-acre (2 4 ha) property of Bing Crosby's former Los Angeles house  He demolished the property and built a 123-room home on the lot in 1991  Known as "The Manor", it has 56,500 square feet (5,250 m2) of floor space and as of 2006 was the largest single-family home in Los Angeles  Spelling's widow Candy listed the home for sale in 2008 for $150 million  Heiress Petra Ecclestone ultimately purchased the property for $85 million in 2011 through a brokered agreement that was developed by Brandon Davis, the brother of Jason Davis and grandson of wealthy industrialist, Marvin Davis In 1992, Candy, Spelling's second wife, commissioned pinball manufacturer Data East to produce a personalized table as a gift to Spelling  The game, a modified version of Data East's Lethal Weapon 3 table, has since appeared publicly at collector's expos 

Legacy and death
On September 15, 1978, Spelling was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6667 Hollywood Blvd  In 1996, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame 
In 1983, he was accorded the NAACP Humanitarian Award for his monetary donation that permitted a 21-year-old's heart transplant operation In 2001, Spelling was diagnosed with oral cancer On June 23, 2006, Spelling died at The Manor, his estate in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, from complications of a stroke he suffered five days prior  He also suffered from Alzheimer's disease  A private funeral was held several days later, and Spelling was entombed in a mausoleum in Culver City's Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery 
On August 27, 2006, Spelling was posthumously honored at the 58th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards by former employees Joan Collins, Stephen Collins, Heather Locklear, Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith 
7th Heaven's May 13, 2007, episode, the last before the series finale, was dedicated to Spelling  When 7th Heaven ended its run, it was touted by the network as being Spelling's longest-running series and the longest-running "family drama" in American television history 

Filmography
Spelling was a producer in all films unless otherwise noted 

Film
As writerAs an actor

Television
As writerAs an actorMiscellaneous crewSoundtrackAs directorThanks

Awards and nominations
See also
Norman Lear
David L  Wolper
Alan Landsburg
Passage 14:
Menstrual cycle
The menstrual cycle is a series of natural changes in hormone production and the structures of the uterus and ovaries of the female reproductive system that makes pregnancy possible  The ovarian cycle controls the production and release of eggs and the cyclic release of estrogen and progesterone  The uterine cycle governs the preparation and maintenance of the lining of the uterus (womb) to receive an embryo  These cycles are concurrent and coordinated, normally last between 21 and 35 days, with a median length of 28 days, and continue for about 30–45 years 
Naturally occurring hormones drive the cycles; the cyclical rise and fall of the follicle stimulating hormone prompts the production and growth of oocytes (immature egg cells)  The hormone estrogen stimulates the uterus lining (endometrium) to thicken to accommodate an embryo should fertilization occur  The blood supply of the thickened lining provides nutrients to a successfully implanted embryo  If implantation does not occur, the lining breaks down and blood is released  Triggered by falling progesterone levels, menstruation (a "period", in common parlance) is the cyclical shedding of the lining, and is a sign that pregnancy has not occurred 
Each cycle occurs in phases based on events either in the ovary (ovarian cycle) or in the uterus (uterine cycle)  The ovarian cycle consists of the follicular phase, ovulation, and the luteal phase; the uterine cycle consists of the menstrual, proliferative and secretory phases  Day one of the menstrual cycle is the first day of the period, which lasts for about five days  Around day fourteen, an egg is usually released from the ovary  Menarche (the onset of the first period) usually occurs around the age of twelve years 
The menstrual cycle can cause some women to experience premenstrual syndrome with symptoms that may include  tender breasts, and tiredness  More severe symptoms that affect daily living are classed as premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and are experienced by 3–8% of women  During the first few days of menstruation some women experience period pain that can spread from the abdomen to the back and upper thighs  The menstrual cycle can be modified by hormonal birth control 

Cycles and phases
The menstrual cycle encompasses the ovarian and uterine cycles  The ovarian cycle describes changes that occur in the follicles of the ovary, whereas the uterine cycle describes changes in the endometrial lining of the uterus   Both cycles can be divided into phases   The ovarian cycle consists of alternating follicular and luteal phases, and the uterine cycle consists of menstruation, the proliferative phase, and the secretory phase  The menstrual cycle is controlled by the hypothalamus in the brain, and the anterior pituitary gland at the base of the brain  The hypothalamus releases gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), which causes the nearby anterior pituitary to release follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH)  Before puberty, GnRH is released in low steady quantities and at a steady rate  After puberty, GnRH is released in large pulses, and the frequency and magnitude of these determine how much FSH and LH are produced by the pituitary Measured from the first day of one menstruation to the first day of the next, the length of a menstrual cycle varies but has a median length of 28 days  The cycle is often less regular at the beginning and end of a woman's reproductive life  At puberty, a child's body begins to mature into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction; the first period (called menarche) occurs at around 12 years of age and continues for about 30–45 years  Menstrual cycles end at menopause, which is usually between 45 and 55 years of age 

Ovarian cycle
Between menarche and menopause the ovaries regularly alternate between luteal and follicular phases during the monthly menstrual cycle  Stimulated by gradually increasing amounts of estrogen in the follicular phase, discharges of blood flow stop and the uterine lining thickens  Follicles in the ovary begin developing under the influence of a complex interplay of hormones, and after several days one, or occasionally two, become dominant, while non-dominant follicles shrink and die  About mid-cycle, some 10–12 hours after the increase in luteinizing hormone, known as the LH surge, the dominant follicle releases an oocyte, in an event called ovulation After ovulation, the oocyte lives for 24 hours or less without fertilization, while the remains of the dominant follicle in the ovary become a corpus luteum –  a body with the primary function of producing large amounts of the hormone progesterone  Under the influence of progesterone, the uterine lining changes to prepare for potential implantation of an embryo to establish a pregnancy  The thickness of the endometrium continues to increase in response to mounting levels of estrogen, which is released by the antral follicle (a mature ovarian follicle) into the blood circulation  Peak levels of estrogen are reached at around day thirteen of the cycle and coincide with ovulation  If implantation does not occur within about two weeks, the corpus luteum degenerates into the corpus albicans, which does not produce hormones, causing a sharp drop in levels of both progesterone and estrogen  This drop causes the uterus to lose its lining in menstruation; it is around this time that the lowest levels of estrogen are reached In an ovulatory menstrual cycle, the ovarian and uterine cycles are concurrent and coordinated and last between 21 and 35 days, with a population average of 27–29 days  Although the average length of the human menstrual cycle is similar to that of the lunar cycle, there is no causal relation between the two 

Follicular phase
The ovaries contain a finite number of egg stem cells, granulosa cells and theca cells, which together form primordial follicles  At around 20 weeks into gestation some 7 million immature eggs have already formed in an ovary  This decreases to around 2 million by the time a girl is born, and 300,000 by the time she has her first period  On average, one egg matures and is released during ovulation each month after menarche  Beginning at puberty, these mature to primary follicles independently of the menstrual cycle   The development of the egg is called oogenesis and only one cell survives the divisions to await fertilization  The other cells are discarded as polar bodies, which cannot be fertilized  The follicular phase is the first part of the ovarian cycle and it ends with the completion of the antral follicles  Meiosis (cell division) remains incomplete in the egg cells until the antral follicle is formed  During this phase usually only one ovarian follicle fully matures and gets ready to release an egg  The follicular phase shortens significantly with age, lasting around 14 days in women aged 18–24 compared with 10 days in women aged 40–44 Through the influence of a rise in follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) during the first days of the cycle, a few ovarian follicles are stimulated  These follicles, which have been developing for the better part of a year in a process known as folliculogenesis, compete with each other for dominance  All but one of these follicles will stop growing, while one dominant follicle – the one that has the most FSH receptors –  will continue to maturity  The remaining follicles die in a process called follicular atresia  Luteinizing hormone (LH) stimulates further development of the ovarian follicle  The follicle that reaches maturity is called an antral follicle, and it contains the ovum (egg cell) The theca cells develop receptors that bind LH, and in response secrete large amounts of androstenedione  At the same time the granulosa cells surrounding the maturing follicle develop receptors that bind FSH, and in response start secreting androstenedione, which is converted to estrogen by the enzyme aromatase  The estrogen inhibits further production of FSH and LH by the pituitary gland  This negative feedback regulates levels of FSH and LH  The dominant follicle continues to secrete estrogen, and the rising estrogen levels make the pituitary more responsive to GnRH from the hypothalamus  As estrogen increases this becomes a positive feedback signal, which makes the pituitary secrete more FSH and LH  This surge of FSH and LH usually occurs one to two days before ovulation and is responsible for stimulating the rupture of the antral follicle and release of the oocyte 

Ovulation
Around day fourteen, the egg is released from the ovary   Called ovulation, this occurs when a mature egg is released from the ovarian follicles into the fallopian tube, about 10–12 hours after the peak in LH surge  Typically only one of the 15–20 stimulated follicles reaches full maturity, and just one egg is released  Ovulation only occurs in around 10% of cycles during the first two years following menarche, and by the age of 40–50, the number of ovarian follicles is depleted  LH initiates ovulation at around day 14 and stimulates the formation of the corpus luteum  Following further stimulation by LH, the corpus luteum produces and releases estrogen, progesterone, relaxin (which relaxes the uterus by inhibiting contractions of the myometrium), and inhibin (which inhibits further secretion of FSH) The release of LH matures the egg and weakens the follicle wall in the ovary, causing the fully developed follicle to release its oocyte  If it is fertilized by a sperm, the oocyte promptly matures into an ootid, which blocks the other sperm cells and becomes a mature egg  If it is not fertilized by a sperm, the oocyte degenerates  The mature egg has a diameter of about 0 1 mm (0 0039 in), and is the largest human cell Which of the two ovaries – left or right – ovulates appears random; no left and right coordinating process is known  Occasionally both ovaries release an egg; if both eggs are fertilized, the result is fraternal twins  After release from the ovary, the egg is swept into the fallopian tube by the fimbria –  a fringe of tissue at the end of each fallopian tube  After about a day, an unfertilized egg disintegrates or dissolves in the fallopian tube, and a fertilized egg reaches the uterus in three to five days Fertilization usually takes place in the ampulla, the widest section of the fallopian tubes  A fertilized egg immediately starts the process of embryonic development  The developing embryo takes about three days to reach the uterus, and another three days to implant into the endometrium  It has reached the blastocyst stage at the time of implantation: this is when pregnancy begins  The loss of the corpus luteum is prevented by fertilization of the egg   The syncytiotrophoblast (the outer layer of the resulting embryo-containing blastocyst that later becomes the outer layer of the placenta) produces human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), which is very similar to LH and preserves the corpus luteum  During the first few months of pregnancy, the corpus luteum continues to secrete progesterone and estrogens at slightly higher levels than those at ovulation  After this and for the rest of the pregnancy, the placenta secretes high levels of these hormones – along with human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), which stimulates the corpus luteum to secrete more progesterone and estrogens, blocking the menstrual cycle  These hormones also prepare the mammary glands for milk production 

Luteal phase
Lasting about 14 days, the luteal phase is the final phase of the ovarian cycle and it corresponds to the secretory phase of the uterine cycle  During the luteal phase, the pituitary hormones FSH and LH cause the remaining parts of the dominant follicle to transform into the corpus luteum, which produces progesterone  The increased progesterone starts to induce the production of estrogen  The hormones produced by the corpus luteum also suppress production of the FSH and LH that the corpus luteum needs to maintain itself  The level of FSH and LH fall quickly, and the corpus luteum atrophies  Falling levels of progesterone trigger menstruation and the beginning of the next cycle  From the time of ovulation until progesterone withdrawal has caused menstruation to begin, the process typically takes about two weeks  For an individual woman, the follicular phase often varies in length from cycle to cycle; by contrast, the length of her luteal phase will be fairly consistent from cycle to cycle at 10 to 16 days (average 14 days) 

Uterine cycle
The uterine cycle has three phases: menses, proliferative and secretory 

Menstruation
Menstruation (also called menstrual bleeding, menses or a period) is the first and most evident phase of the uterine cycle and first occurs at puberty  Called menarche, the first period occurs at the age of around twelve or thirteen years  The average age is generally later in the developing world and earlier in the developed world   In precocious puberty, it can occur as early as age eight years, and this can still be normal Menstruation is initiated each month by falling levels of estrogen and progesterone and the release of prostaglandins, which constrict the spiral arteries  This causes them to spasm, contract and break up  The blood supply to the endometrium is cut off and the cells of the top layer of the endometrium (the stratum functionalis) become deprived of oxygen and die  Later the whole layer is lost and only the bottom layer, the stratum basalis, is left in place  An enzyme called plasmin breaks up the blood clots in the menstrual fluid, which eases the flow of blood and broken down lining from the uterus  The flow of blood continues for 2–6 days and around 30–60 milliliters of blood is lost, and is a sign that pregnancy has not occurred The flow of blood normally serves as a sign that a woman has not become pregnant, but this cannot be taken as certainty, as several factors can cause bleeding during pregnancy  Menstruation occurs on average once a month from menarche to menopause, which corresponds with a woman's fertile years  The average age of menopause in women is 52 years, and it typically occurs between 45 and 55 years of age  Menopause is preceded by a stage of hormonal changes called perimenopause Eumenorrhea denotes normal, regular menstruation that lasts for around the first 5 days of the cycle  Women who experience menorrhagia (heavy menstrual bleeding) are more susceptible to iron deficiency than the average person 

Proliferative phase
The proliferative phase is the second phase of the uterine cycle when estrogen causes the lining of the uterus to grow and proliferate  The latter part of the follicular phase overlaps with the proliferative phase of the uterine cycle  As they mature, the ovarian follicles secrete increasing amounts of estradiol, an estrogen  The estrogens initiate the formation of a new layer of endometrium in the uterus with the spiral arterioles As estrogen levels increase, cells in the cervix produce a type of cervical mucus that has a higher pH and is less viscous than usual, rendering it more friendly to sperm  This increases the chances of fertilization, which occurs around day 11 to day 14  This cervical mucus can be detected as a vaginal discharge that is copious and resembles raw egg whites  For women who are practicing fertility awareness, it is a sign that ovulation may be about to take place, but it does not mean ovulation will definitely occur 

Secretory phase
The secretory phase is the final phase of the uterine cycle and it corresponds to the luteal phase of the ovarian cycle  During the secretory phase, the corpus luteum produces progesterone, which plays a vital role in making the endometrium receptive to the implantation of a blastocyst (a fertilized egg, which has begun to grow)  Glycogen, lipids, and proteins are secreted into the uterus and the cervical mucus thickens  In early pregnancy, progesterone also increases blood flow and reduces the contractility of the smooth muscle in the uterus and raises the woman's basal body temperature If pregnancy does not occur the ovarian and uterine cycles start over again 

Anovulatory cycles and short luteal phases
Only two-thirds of overtly normal menstrual cycles are ovulatory, that is, cycles in which ovulation occurs  The other third lack ovulation or have a short luteal phase (less than ten days) in which progesterone production is insufficient for normal physiology and fertility  Cycles in which ovulation does not occur (anovulation) are common in girls who have just begun menstruating and in women around menopause  During the first two years following menarche, ovulation is absent in around half of cycles  Five years after menarche, ovulation occurs in around 75% of cycles and this reaches 80% in the following years  Anovulatory cycles are often overtly identical to normally ovulatory cycles  Any alteration to balance of hormones can lead to anovulation  Stress, anxiety and eating disorders can cause a fall in GnRH, and a disruption of the menstrual cycle  Chronic anovulation occurs in 6–15% of women during their reproductive years  Around menopause, hormone feedback dysregulation leads to anovulatory cycles  Although anovulation is not considered a disease, it can be a sign of an underlying condition such as polycystic ovary syndrome  Anovulatory cycles or short luteal phases are normal when women are under stress or athletes increasing the intensity of training  These changes are reversible as the stressors decrease or, in the case of the athlete, as she adapts to the training 

Menstrual health
Although a normal and natural process, some women experience premenstrual syndrome with symptoms that may include acne, tender breasts, and tiredness  More  severe symptoms that affect daily living are classed as premenstrual dysphoric disorder and are experienced by 3 to 8% of women   Dysmenorrhea (menstrual cramps or period pain) is felt as painful cramps in the abdomen that can spread to the back and upper thighs during the first few days of menstruation  Debilitating period pain is not normal and can be a sign of something severe such as endometriosis  These issues can significantly affect a woman's health and quality of life and timely interventions can improve the lives of these women There are common culturally communicated misbeliefs that the menstrual cycle affects women's moods, causes depression or irritability, or that menstruation is a painful, shameful or unclean experience  Often a woman's normal mood variation is falsely attributed to the menstrual cycle  Much of the research is weak, but there appears to be a very small increase in mood fluctuations during the luteal and menstrual phases, and a corresponding decrease during the rest of the cycle  Changing levels of estrogen and progesterone across the menstrual cycle exert systemic effects on aspects of physiology including the brain, metabolism, and musculoskeletal system  The result can be subtle physiological and observable changes to women's athletic performance including strength, aerobic, and anaerobic performance Changes to the brain have also been observed throughout the menstrual cycle but do not translate into measurable changes in intellectual achievement – including academic performance, problem-solving, memory, and creativity  Improvements in spatial reasoning ability during the menstruation phase of the cycle are probably caused by decreases in levels of estrogen and progesterone In some women, ovulation features a characteristic pain called mittelschmerz (a German term meaning middle pain)  The cause of the pain is associated with the ruptured follicle, causing a small amount of blood loss Even when normal, the changes in hormone levels during the menstrual cycle can increase the incidence of disorders such as autoimmune diseases, which might be caused by estrogen enhancement of the immune system Around 40% of women with epilepsy find that their seizures occur more frequently at certain phases of their menstrual cycle  This catamenial epilepsy may be due to a drop in progesterone if it occurs during the luteal phase or around menstruation, or a surge in estrogen if it occurs at ovulation  Women who have regular periods can take medication just before and during menstruation  Options include progesterone supplements, increasing the dose of their regular anticonvulsant drug, or temporarily adding an anticonvulsant such as clobazam or acetazolamide  If this is ineffective, or when a woman's menstrual cycle is irregular, then treatment is to stop the menstrual cycle occurring  This may be achieved using medroxyprogesterone, triptorelin or goserelin, or by sustained use of oral contraceptives 

Hormonal contraception
Hormonal contraceptives prevent pregnancy by inhibiting the secretion of the hormones, FSH, LH and GnRH  Hormonal contraception that contains estrogen, such as combined oral contraceptive pills (COCPs), stop the development of the dominant follicle and the mid-cycle LH surge and thus ovulation   Sequential dosing and discontinuation of the COCP can mimic the uterine cycle and produce bleeding that resembles a period  In some cases, this bleeding is lighter Progestin-only methods of hormonal contraception do not always prevent ovulation but instead work by stopping the cervical mucus from becoming sperm-friendly  Hormonal contraception is available in a variety of forms such as pills, patches, skin implants and hormonal intrauterine devices (IUDs) 

Evolution and other species
Most female mammals have an estrous cycle, but only ten primate species, four bat species, the elephant shrews and the Cairo spiny mouse (Acomys cahirinus) have a menstrual cycle  The cycles are the same as in humans apart from the length, which ranges from 9 to 37 days  The lack of immediate relationship between these groups suggests that four distinct evolutionary events have caused menstruation to arise  In species that have a menstrual cycle, ovulation is not obvious to potential mates and there is no mating season   There are four theories on the evolutionary significance of menstruation:
Control of sperm-borne pathogens   This hypothesis held that menstruation protected the uterus against pathogens introduced by sperm  Hypothesis 1 does not take into account that copulation can take place weeks before menstruation and that potentially infectious semen is not controlled by menstruation in other species 
Energy conservation  This hypothesis claimed that it took less energy to rebuild a uterine lining than to maintain it if pregnancy did not occur   Hypothesis 2 does not explain other species that also do not maintain a uterine lining but do not menstruate 
A theory based on spontaneous decidualization (a process that results in significant changes to cells of the endometrium in preparation for, and during, pregnancy, in which the endometrium changes into the decidua)   Decidualization leads to the development of the endothelium, which involves cells of the immune system, the formation of a new blood supply, hormones and tissue differentiation  In non-menstruating mammals, decidualization is driven by the embryo, not the mother  It evolved in some placental mammals because it confers advantages in that it allows females to prepare for pregnancy without needing a signal from the fetus  Hypothesis 3 defers to an explanation of the evolutionary origin of spontaneous decidualization and does not explain the evolution of menstruation alone 
Uterine pre-conditioning  This hypothesis claims that a monthly pre-conditioning of the uterus is needed in species, such as humans, that have deeply invasive (deep-rooted) placentas  In the process leading to the formation of a placenta, maternal tissues are invaded  This hypothesis holds that menstruation was not evolutionary, rather the result of a coincidental pre-conditioning of the uterus to protect uterine tissue from the deeply rooting placenta, in which a thicker endometrium develops  Hypothesis 4 does not explain menstruation in non-primates 

Notes
Context 3: Passage 1:
Daniel Stern (actor)
Daniel Jacob Stern (born August 28, 1957) is an American actor, artist, director, and screenwriter  He is perhaps best known for his roles as Marv Murchins in Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Phil Berquist in City Slickers (1991) and City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994), the voice of adult Kevin Arnold on the television series The Wonder Years, and the voice of Dilbert on the animated series of the same name  Other notable films of his include Breaking Away (1979), Stardust Memories (1980), Diner (1982), Blue Thunder (1983), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), Coupe de Ville (1990), and Very Bad Things (1998)  He made his feature-film directorial debut with Rookie of the Year (1993) 

Early life
Stern was born in Bethesda, Maryland to Cynthia and Leonard Stern  His father was a social worker while his mother managed a day care center  He is Jewish  His brother is television writer David M  Stern  During his years at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, Stern starred in several theater productions, including playing C C  Baxter in Promises, Promises and Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof  Stern applied for a job as a lighting engineer for a Shakespeare Festival in Washington, D C , but was hired as a walk-on in their production of The Taming of the Shrew, starring Glenn Close  He dropped out of high school in his senior year and soon moved to New York  After taking acting lessons at HB Studio with Austin Pendleton and Herbert Berghof, Stern began his acting career in Off Broadway and Broadway productions, including True West with Gary Sinise and How I Got That Story at Second Stage Theatre with Bob Gunton  He acted in numerous productions at The Public Theater, Ensemble Studio Theater, Cherry Lane Theater, and Manhattan Theater Club 

Career
In 1979, Stern made his film debut as Cyril in Breaking Away  The following year he played a student who raised objections during Jill Clayburgh's proof of the snake lemma in the film It's My Turn  He was the novice observer Richard Lymangood in the 1983 action thriller film Blue Thunder  He had another early film role in the 1984 horror film C H U D , as the soup kitchen C H U D  hunter  His breakthrough role as Laurence "Shrevie" Schreiber came in Barry Levinson's Diner  He appeared in two films with Woody Allen, Stardust Memories and Hannah and Her Sisters 
Stern has played characters in a number of comedic roles, such as Phil Berquist in City Slickers and City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold, and Marv the burglar in the first two Home Alone films, Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, with Joe Pesci  However, he declined to play the character once again in the fourth installment of the franchise, believing the script to be an insult to the original motion picture  He also starred as Max in Bushwhacked  He provided the voice of the narrator on the TV series The Wonder Years, which starred Fred Savage as Kevin Arnold  As narrator, Stern played the adult Kevin Arnold, remembering his youth  Stern and Savage were also featured together in Little Monsters, in which Stern played the father of Savage's character  In the late 1990s, Stern took on a more serious role in the black comedy Very Bad Things with Christian Slater, Cameron Diaz and Jon Favreau  Stern provided the voice for the main character of the Dilbert animated TV series, based on the comic strip by Scott Adams 
Stern directed several episodes of The Wonder Years and the 1993 feature film Rookie of the Year, and in recent years directed two episodes of the TV series, Manhattan 
Stern created, wrote, and starred in the CBS television show Danny 
He wrote the off-Broadway hit Barbra's Wedding, which was produced by The Dodgers and Manhattan Theater Club  It starred John Pankow and Julie White and ran for six months  Stern also appeared in the play at Garry Marshall's Falcon Theater 
Stern was originally offered the role of Dale Gribble in King of the Hill but he was replaced by Johnny Hardwick when his salary agreement went low  He starred in Game Over, Man! (2018) as well as the Hulu original series, “Shrill”, as the main character’s (Aidy Bryant) father 

Personal life
Stern works as an artist, specializing in bronze sculpture  He has created sculptures for public art projects in San Diego, Pasadena, Palm Desert, Temple City, Monrovia, and Agoura Hills  He is an artist in residence at Studio Channel Islands Art Centre in Camarillo  He has also done many private commissions, gallery exhibitions and art fairs  He married actress Laure Mattos in 1980, and together they have three children, son California State Senator Henry Stern and daughters Ella and Sophie Stern 

Filmography
Film
Television
Awards and nominations
Passage 2:
Sing Me a Song
Sing Me a Song may refer to:

Sing Me a Song (song), the Dutch entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1983
Sing Me a Song (The Walking Dead), an episode of the television series The Walking Dead
Sing Me a Song (album), an album by Miriam Makeba
Passage 3:
Forrest Gump
Forrest Gump is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Eric Roth  It is based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom and stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson and Sally Field  The film follows several decades in the life of a slow-witted and kindhearted Alabama man named Forrest Gump (Hanks) and his experiences in the 20th-century United States  The film differs substantially from the novel 
Principal photography took place between August and December 1993, mainly in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina  Extensive visual effects were used to incorporate Hanks into archived footage and to develop other scenes  The soundtrack features songs reflecting the different periods seen in the film 
Forrest Gump was released in the United States on July 6, 1994, and received mostly positive reviews, with critical acclaim for Zemeckis's direction, performances (particularly those of Hanks and Sinise), visual effects, music, and screenplay  The film was an enormous success at the box office; it became the top-grossing film in America released that year and earned over US$678 2 million worldwide during its theatrical run, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 1994, behind The Lion King  The soundtrack sold over 12 million copies  Forrest Gump won six Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Hanks, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, and Best Film Editing  It received many award nominations, including Golden Globes, British Academy Film Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards 
Various interpretations have been made of the protagonist and the film's political symbolism  In 2011, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" 

Plot
In 1981, a man named Forrest Gump recounts his life story to strangers who happen to sit next to him at a bus stop  
As a boy in 1956, Forrest has an IQ of 75 and is fitted with leg braces to correct a curved spine  He lives in Greenbow, Alabama, with his mother, who runs a boarding house and encourages him to live beyond his disabilities  Among their temporary tenants is a young Elvis Presley, who plays the guitar for Forrest and incorporates the boy's jerky dance movements into his performances  On his first day of school, Forrest meets a girl named Jenny Curran, and the two become best friends  Jenny is a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of her widowed, alcoholic father, but she is later removed from his custody 
Bullied because of his leg braces and dimwittedness, Forrest flees from a group of children, but when his braces break off, he is revealed to be a fast runner  With this talent, he receives a football scholarship at the University of Alabama in 1962, where he is coached by Bear Bryant, becomes a top kick returner, is named to the All-American team, and meets president John F  Kennedy at the White House  In his first year at college, he witnesses Governor George Wallace's Stand in the Schoolhouse Door and returns a dropped book to Vivian Malone Jones, one of the students admitted over state resistance  He visits Jenny at her college, where the two have an awkward sexual encounter 
After graduating from college in 1966, Forrest enlists in the U S  Army  During basic training, he befriends a fellow soldier named Benjamin Buford Blue (nicknamed "Bubba"), who becomes a close friend and convinces Forrest to go into the shrimping business with him after their service  While on leave, Forrest goes to Memphis, Tennessee, to see Jenny, who was expelled from college for posing in Playboy in her college sweater, and now works as a singer in a strip club  However, he embarrasses her by attacking some patrons who were harassing her, causing the two to part ways  Soon afterwards, Forrest and Bubba are sent to fight in Vietnam, serving with the 9th Infantry Division in the Mekong Delta region under Lieutenant Dan Taylor  After months of routine operations, their platoon is ambushed while on patrol, and several members of the platoon are killed in action, including Bubba  Forrest saves several others, including Lieutenant Dan, who loses both of his lower legs, while Forrest is shot "in the buttocks " While recovering from his wound, Forrest develops a talent for ping pong  Taylor is embittered from having his life saved as he had hoped to die in combat like his ancestors, and detests being handicapped  Forrest is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism by President Lyndon B  Johnson  
At an anti-war March on the Pentagon rally, Forrest meets Abbie Hoffman, encounters a Black Panther group, and reunites with Jenny, who has become a drug-addicted hippie and anti-war activist, but the two are soon parted again when she leaves for San Francisco with her abusive boyfriend, the president of SDS at Berkeley  Forrest plays ping-pong in the special services, competing against Chinese teams in ping-pong diplomacy, becoming a celebrity, and earns himself an interview alongside John Lennon on The Dick Cavett Show, appearing to influence Lennon's song "Imagine"  Forrest spends 1972 New Year's Eve in New York City with Lieutenant Dan, who has become an alcoholic, still bitter about his disability and the government's apathy towards Vietnam War veterans  Forrest does not enjoy the company of Lt  Dan's prostitutes because of his devotion to Jenny, and rejects their advances, leading Lt  Dan to angrily throw them out for insulting Forrest  Forrest's ping-pong success eventually leads to a meeting with President Richard Nixon  He is given a room in the Watergate complex, where he unwittingly exposes the Watergate scandal 
In 1974, Forrest is honorably discharged from the Army, and returns to Greenbow, where he endorses a company that makes ping-pong paddles  He uses the earnings to buy a shrimping boat in Bayou La Batre, fulfilling his promise to Bubba  Lieutenant Dan joins Forrest as his first mate, and they initially have very little success  However, after their boat becomes the only one to survive Hurricane Carmen, they pull in vast amounts of shrimp and create the profitable Bubba Gump Shrimp Company  Lieutenant Dan acknowledges that Forrest saved him, however does not actually thank him for saving his life  Dan invests his money in early tech companies on the stock market, which Forrest mistakes for "some kind of fruit company", and the two become millionaires  Forrest gives half of his earnings to Bubba's family for having inspired the shrimping venture  Forrest returns home to his mother and cares for her during her terminal illness from cancer  After she dies, Forrest spends most of his time volunteering as a gardener at the University of Alabama 
In 1976, Jenny – recovering from years of drugs and abuse – returns to Forrest  One day, the two are walking, and come across the now-abandoned house of Jenny's father, where Jenny, in a rage, throws all the rocks she can find at it, until she collapses in anguish  After some time, Forrest proposes to her, but she turns him down, much to Forrest's dismay  That night, she confesses to Forrest that she does indeed love him  They make love, but Jenny leaves the next morning  Heartbroken, Forrest, "for no particular reason", starts running and embarks on a cross-country marathon, becoming famous for another feat  Forrest starts to garner many followers, some of whom are struggling businessmen, whom he unwittingly gives inspiration  After a total of about three years and two-and-a half months running, Forrest decides to end the run, and returns to Greenbow, much to the surprise of his followers 
In 1981, Forrest gets a letter from Jenny, asking him to visit her, and it turns out that's why he's been waiting at the bus stop  An old lady informs him that the address is only five/six blocks away, and he rushes off  Forrest again reunites with Jenny, who has quit abusing drugs, and has turned her life around  Jenny then introduces him to her young son, Forrest Gump Jr , revealing that Forrest is his father  Initially shocked at the revelation, Forrest starts to bond with his son  Jenny later tells Forrest she is sick with "some kind of virus" and the doctors can't do anything for her  The three move back to Greenbow and Jenny and Forrest finally marry  Among their wedding guests is Lt  Dan, now walking on titanium alloy prosthetics, with his fiancé, a Vietnamese woman named Susan  Jenny succumbs to her illness a year later  Forrest is deeply saddened by her death but becomes a loving, devoted father to Forrest Jr  as the two engage in activities like ping pong and fishing  Forrest also buys the land that belonged to Jenny's father and has the house demolished  Lastly, Forrest sees his son off on his first day of school 

Cast
Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump: At an early age, Forrest is deemed to have a below-average IQ of 75  He has an endearing character and shows devotion to his loved ones and duties, character traits that bring him into many life-changing situations  Along the way, he encounters many historical figures and events throughout his life 
Michael Conner Humphreys as young Forrest Gump: Hanks revealed in interviews that instead of having Michael copy his accent, he copied Michael's unique accented drawl into the older character's accent 
Robin Wright as Jenny Curran: Forrest's childhood friend with whom he immediately falls in love, and never stops loving throughout his life  A victim of child sexual abuse at the hands of her bitterly widowed father, Jenny embarks on a different path from Forrest, leading a self-destructive life and becoming part of the hippie movement in California in the 1960s and the following Me Decade's sex and drug culture of the 1970s  She re-enters Forrest's life at various times in adulthood  Jenny eventually becomes a waitress in Savannah, Georgia, where she lives in an apartment with her (and Forrest's) son, Forrest Jr  They eventually get married, but soon afterward she dies from complications due to an unnamed disease  This unknown disease was intended by Winston Groom, the author of the original novel, to be Hepatitis C, itself an "unknown virus" until defined in April 1989, although some of the makers of the film have said that they intended for the unknown disease to have been HIV/AIDS Hanna R  Hall as young Jenny Curran
Gary Sinise as Lieutenant Dan Taylor: Forrest and Bubba Blue's platoon leader during the Vietnam War, whose ancestors have died in every U S  war and who regards it as his destiny to do the same  After losing his legs in an ambush and being rescued against his will by Forrest, he is initially bitter and antagonistic toward Forrest for leaving him a "cripple" and denying him his family's destiny, falling into a deep depression  He later serves as Forrest's first mate at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, gives most of the orders, becomes wealthy with Forrest, and regains his will to live  He ultimately forgives and thanks Forrest for saving his life  By the end of the film, he is engaged to be married to his fiancée Susan and is sporting "magic legs" – titanium alloy prosthetics that allow him to walk again 
Mykelti Williamson as Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue: Bubba was originally supposed to be the senior partner in the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, but due to his death in Vietnam, their platoon leader, Dan Taylor, took his place  The company posthumously carried his name  Forrest later gave Bubba's mother Bubba's share of the business  Throughout filming, Williamson wore a lip attachment to create Bubba's protruding lip 
Sally Field as Mrs  Gump: Forrest's mother  Field reflected on the character, "She's a woman who loves her son unconditionally      A lot of her dialogue sounds like slogans, and that's just what she intends "
Haley Joel Osment as Forrest Gump Jr : Osment was cast in the film after the casting director noticed him in a Pizza Hut commercial  It was his debut feature film role 
Peter Dobson as Elvis Presley: Although Kurt Russell was uncredited, he provided the voice for Elvis in the scene 
Dick Cavett as himself: Cavett played a de-aged version of himself in the 1970s, with makeup applied to make him appear younger  Consequently, Cavett is the only well-known figure in the film to play a cameo role rather than be represented through the use of archival footage like John Lennon or President John F  Kennedy 
Sam Anderson as Principal Hancock: Forrest's elementary school principal 
Geoffrey Blake as Wesley: A member of the SDS group and Jenny's abusive boyfriend
Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Dorothy Harris: The school bus driver who drives Forrest, and later his son, to school
Sonny Shroyer as Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant
Grand L  Bush, Michael Jace, Conor Kennelly, and Teddy Lane Jr  as the Black Panthers
Richard D'Alessandro as Abbie Hoffman
Tiffany Salerno and Marla Sucharetza as "Cunning" Carla and "Long-Limbs" Lenore: a couple of prostitutes that Forrest and Dan spend a New Year's evening with and later turn away

Production
Pre-production and script
The film is based on the 1986 novel by Winston Groom  Both center on the character of Forrest Gump  However, the film primarily focuses on the first eleven chapters of the novel before skipping ahead to the end of the novel, with the founding of Bubba Gump Shrimp Co  and the meeting with Forrest Jr  In addition to skipping some parts of the novel, the film adds several aspects to Gump's life that do not occur in the novel, such as his needing leg braces as a child and his run across the United States Gump's core character and personality are also changed from the novel; among other things, his film character is less of a savant—in the novel, while playing football at the university, he fails craft and gym but receives a perfect score in an advanced physics class he is enrolled in by his coach to satisfy his college requirements  The novel also features Gump as an astronaut, a professional wrestler, and a chess player The book had a bidding war regarding an adaptation even before publication, with Wendy Finerman and Steve Tisch acquiring them by joining forces with Warner Bros , where Finerman's husband Mark Canton was president of production  Groom was paid $500,000 and also wrote the first three first drafts of the screenplay, which leaned closer to the events of the novel  After Rain Man told the story of a savant, Warner lost interest in the picture, and by 1990 the project was in turnaround  Finerman contacted Columbia Pictures, who went on reject it, while hiring Eric Roth to rewrite the script  Roth and Finerman kept in contact with Groom to ensure the script was historically accurate  Roth delivered a screenplay in 1992, which Paramount Pictures chairwoman Sherry Lansing liked enough to bring the project to her studio, who acquired the rights from Warner in exchange for the script for Executive Decision Ivan Reitman, Penny Marshall and Terry Gilliam passed on the project before Robert Zemeckis was hired  Barry Sonnenfeld was attached to the film, but left to direct Addams Family Values 

Casting
John Travolta was the original choice to play the title role and says passing on the role was a mistake  Bill Murray and Chevy Chase were also considered for the role  Sean Penn stated in an interview having been second choice for the role  Hanks revealed that he signed on to the film after an hour and a half of reading the script  He initially wanted to ease Forrest's pronounced Southern accent but was eventually persuaded by director Robert Zemeckis to portray the heavy accent stressed in the novel  Hanks also said it took him three days to learn how to play the role, and footage from that time could not be included  Winston Groom, who wrote the original novel, describes the film as having taken the "rough edges" off the character whom he had envisioned being played by John Goodman  Additionally, Tom's younger brother Jim Hanks is his acting double in the movie for the scenes when Forrest runs across the U S  Tom's daughter Elizabeth Hanks appears in the movie as the girl on the school bus who refuses to let young Forrest (Michael Conner Humphreys) sit next to her  Joe Pesci was considered for the role of Lieutenant Dan Taylor, which was eventually given to Gary Sinise  David Alan Grier, Ice Cube and Dave Chappelle were offered the role of Benjamin Buford Blue, but all three turned it down  Chappelle, who said he believed the film would be unsuccessful, has been reported as saying that he regrets not taking the role  Hanks was aware of Chappelle's disappointment in missing out on the part and agreed to work with him in a future movie, which ended up being You've Got Mail  Rapper Tupac Shakur also auditioned 

Filming
Filming began in August 1993 and ended in December of that year  Although most of the film is set in Alabama, filming took place mainly in and around Beaufort, South Carolina, as well as parts of coastal Virginia and North Carolina, including a running shot on the Blue Ridge Parkway  Downtown portions of the fictional town of Greenbow were filmed in Varnville, South Carolina  The scene of Forrest running through Vietnam while under fire was filmed on Hunting Island State Park  and Fripp Island, South Carolina  Additional filming took place on the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina and along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Boone, North Carolina  The most notable place was Grandfather Mountain where a part of the road subsequently became known as "Forrest Gump Curve" 
The Gump family home set was built along the Combahee River near Yemassee, South Carolina, and the nearby land was used to film Curran's home as well as some of the Vietnam scenes  Over 20 palmetto trees were planted to improve the Vietnam scenes  Forrest Gump narrated his life's story at the northern edge of Chippewa Square in Savannah, Georgia as he sat at a bus stop bench  There were other scenes filmed in and around the Savannah area as well, including a running shot on the Richard V  Woods Memorial Bridge in Beaufort while he was being interviewed by the press, and on West Bay Street in Savannah  Most of the college campus scenes were filmed in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California  The lighthouse that Forrest runs across to reach the Atlantic Ocean the first time is the Marshall Point Lighthouse in Port Clyde, Maine  Additional scenes were filmed in Arizona, Utah's Monument Valley, and Montana's Glacier National Park 

Visual effects
Ken Ralston and his team at Industrial Light & Magic were responsible for the film's visual effects  Using CGI techniques, it was possible to depict Gump meeting deceased personages and shaking their hands  Hanks was first shot against a blue screen along with reference markers so that he could line up with the archive footage  To record the voices of the historical figures, voice actors were filmed and special effects were used to alter lip-syncing for the new dialogue  Archival footage was used and with the help of such techniques as chroma key, image warping, morphing, and rotoscoping, Hanks was integrated into it 
In one Vietnam War scene, Gump carries Bubba away from an incoming napalm attack  To create the effect, stunt actors were initially used for compositing purposes  Then, Hanks and Williamson were filmed, with Williamson supported by a cable wire as Hanks ran with him  The explosion was then filmed, and the actors were digitally added to appear just in front of the explosions  The jet fighters and napalm canisters were also added by CGI The CGI removal of actor Gary Sinise's legs, after his character had them amputated, was achieved by wrapping his legs with a blue fabric, which later facilitated the work of the "roto-paint" team to paint out his legs from every single frame  At one point, while hoisting himself into his wheelchair, his legs are used for support The scene where Forrest spots Jenny at a peace rally at the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool in Washington, D C , required visual effects to create the large crowd of people  Over two days of filming, approximately 1,500 extras were used  At each successive take, the extras were rearranged and moved into a different quadrant away from the camera  With the help of computers, the extras were multiplied to create a crowd of several hundred thousand people 

Reception
Box office
Produced on a budget of $55 million, Forrest Gump opened in 1,595 theaters in the United States and Canada grossing $24,450,602 in its opening weekend  Motion picture business consultant and screenwriter Jeffrey Hilton suggested to producer Wendy Finerman to double the P&A (film marketing budget) based on his viewing of an early print of the film  The budget was immediately increased, in line with his advice  In its opening weekend, the film placed first at the US box office, narrowly beating The Lion King, which was in its fourth week of release  For the first twelve weeks of release, the film was in the top 3 at the US box office, topping the list 5 times, including in its tenth week of release  Paramount removed the film from release in the United States when its gross hit $300 million in January 1995, and it was the second-highest-grossing film of the year, behind The Lion King with $305 million  The film was reissued on February 17, 1995, after the Academy Awards nominations were announced  After the reissue in 1,100 theaters, the film grossed an additional $29 million in the United States and Canada, bringing its total to $329 7 million, making it the third-highest-grossing film at that time behind only E T  the Extra-Terrestrial and Jurassic Park, and was Paramount's biggest, surpassing Raiders of the Lost Ark  Forrest Gump held the record for being the highest-grossing Paramount film until it was taken by Titanic three years later in 1997  For 12 years, it remained as the highest-grossing film starring Tom Hanks until 2006 when it was surpassed by The Da Vinci Code  Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 78 5 million tickets in the US and Canada in its initial theatrical run The film took 66 days to surpass $250 million and was the fastest grossing Paramount film to pass $100 million, $200 million, and $300 million in box office receipts (at the time of its release)  After reissues, the film has gross receipts of $330,252,182 in the U S  and Canada and $347,693,217 in international markets for a total of $677,945,399 worldwide  Even with such revenue, the film was known as a "successful failure"—due to distributors' and exhibitors' high fees, Paramount's "losses" clocked in at $62 million, leaving executives realizing the necessity of better deals  This has also been associated with Hollywood accounting, where expenses are inflated in order to minimize profit sharing  It is Robert Zemeckis' highest-grossing film to date 

Critical reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of 106 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7 5/10  The website's consensus reads: "Forrest Gump may be an overly sentimental film with a somewhat problematic message, but its sweetness and charm are usually enough to approximate true depth and grace " At the website Metacritic, the film earned a rating of 82 out of 100 based on 20 reviews by mainstream critics, indicating "universal acclaim"  Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare "A+" grade The story was commended by several critics  Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "I've never met anyone like Forrest Gump in a movie before, and for that matter I've never seen a movie quite like 'Forrest Gump ' Any attempt to describe him will risk making the movie seem more conventional than it is, but let me try  It's a comedy, I guess  Or maybe a drama  Or a dream  The screenplay by Eric Roth has the complexity of modern fiction   The performance is a breathtaking balancing act between comedy and sadness, in a story rich in big laughs and quiet truths   What a magical movie " Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote that the film "has been very well worked out on all levels, and manages the difficult feat of being an intimate, even delicate tale played with an appealingly light touch against an epic backdrop " In contrast, Anthony Lane of The New Yorker called the film "Warm, wise, and wearisome as hell " Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly said that the film was "glib, shallow, and monotonous" and "reduces the tumult of the last few decades to a virtual-reality theme park: a baby-boomer version of Disney's America "Gump garnered comparisons to fictional character Huckleberry Finn, as well as U S  politicians Ronald Reagan, Pat Buchanan and Bill Clinton  Peter Chomo writes that Gump acts as a "social mediator and as an agent of redemption in divided times"  Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called Gump "everything we admire in the American character – honest, brave, and loyal with a heart of gold " The New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin called Gump a "hollow man" who is "self-congratulatory in his blissful ignorance, warmly embraced as the embodiment of absolutely nothing " Marc Vincenti of Palo Alto Weekly called the character "a pitiful stooge taking the pie of life in the face, thoughtfully licking his fingers " Bruce Kawin and Gerald Mast's textbook on film history notes that Forrest Gump's dimness was a metaphor for glamorized nostalgia in that he represented a blank slate onto which the Baby Boomer generation projected their memories of those events 

Re-evaluation
In the 21st century, the film became negatively re-evaluated  Writing in 2004, Entertainment Weekly said, "Nearly a decade after it earned gazillions and swept the Oscars, Robert Zemeckis's ode to 20th-century America still represents one of cinema's most clearly drawn lines in the sand  One half of folks see it as an artificial piece of pop melodrama, while everyone else raves that it's sweet as a box of chocolates " On the other hand though "Despite many, often special-effects-generated laughs, and several genuinely touching moments, one wishes that Forrest Gump were a sarcastic cautionary tale about the dangers of a simple-minded, apolitical America and not the anti-intellectual, mostly conservative fantasy it is,"" in other words, the film has been criticized for its perceived conservative politics  Writing for Indiewire in 2019, Eric Kohn said: "This no-nothing white man becomes a war hero and a wealthy man simply by chugging along, participating in a country that dictates his every move  He never comprehends racism or the complexities of Vietnam; the movie portrays political activism and hippy culture as a giant cartoon beyond Forrest’s understanding, while presenting his apolitical stance as the height of all virtue " Furthermore, in a 2014 article for CNN discussing the film's reassessment, Brandon Griggs wrote of possible readings against the film "Forrest, as played by Tom Hanks, is the epitome of wholesome decency: a God-fearing, All-American football player and war hero who has no use for the counterculture movements of the late '60s  Despite an IQ of 75, he achieves fame and financial success



ground_truth: Min Zhou

Carl L. Bankston

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Who sings Home Alone Tonight with the Rain is a Good Thing singer?

The following are given passages.
Context 3:  He's even from red-state Alabama!"In a 2014 retrospective for the film's 20th anniversary re-release, Amy Nicholson criticized the film for being apolitical, writing "Forrest doesn't kill anyone  He doesn't get PTSD  He doesn't even have a clue why he's in Vietnam  The film is so afraid to dredge up debate that when Abbie Hoffman hands Forrest the microphone at an antiwar rally, someone unplugs the speakers so we can't hear him — fitting for a movie with nothing to say " LGBTQ+ critics have criticized the "shallow" portrayal of the AIDS epidemic, one that "sidesteps the significance of the disease by erasing its mere mention"  In 2015, The Hollywood Reporter polled hundreds of academy members, asking them to re-vote on past controversial decisions  Academy members said that, given a second chance, they would award the 1994 Oscar for Best Picture to The Shawshank Redemption instead 

Author payment controversy
Winston Groom was paid $350,000 for the screenplay rights to his novel Forrest Gump and was contracted for a 3 percent share of the film's net profits  However, Paramount and the film's producers did not pay him the percentage, using Hollywood accounting to posit that the blockbuster film lost money  Tom Hanks, by contrast, contracted for a percent share of the film's gross receipts instead of a salary, and he and director Zemeckis each received $40 million  In addition, Groom was not mentioned once in any of the film's six Oscar-winner speeches Groom's dispute with Paramount was later effectively resolved after Groom declared he was satisfied with Paramount's explanation of their accounting, this coinciding with Groom receiving a seven-figure contract with Paramount for film rights to another of his books, Gump & Co  This film was never made, remaining in development hell for at least a dozen years 

Home video
Forrest Gump was first released on VHS on April 27, 1995, and on Laserdisc the following day  The laserdisc was THX certified and released without chapters, requiring the film be watched start to finish  Film magazines of the period stated this was at the request of Zemeckis who wanted viewers to enjoy the film in its entirety  It became the best-selling adult sell-through video with sales of over 12 million  
A widescreen VHS release debuted a year later on September 10, 1996  It was released in a two-disc DVD set on August 28, 2001  Special features included director and producer commentaries, production featurettes, and screen tests  The film was released on Blu-ray in November 2009  Paramount released the film on Ultra HD Blu-ray in June 2018  On May 7, 2019, Paramount Pictures released a newly remastered two-disc Blu-ray that contains bonus content 

Accolades
Forrest Gump won Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Hanks had won the previous year for Philadelphia), Best Director, Best Visual Effects, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing at the 67th Academy Awards  The film was nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards, winning three of them: Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, Best Director – Motion Picture, and Best Motion Picture – Drama  The film was also nominated for six Saturn Awards and won two for Best Fantasy Film and Best Supporting Actor (Film) 
In addition to the film's multiple awards and nominations, it has also been recognized by the American Film Institute on several of its lists  The film ranks 37th on 100 Years   100 Cheers, 71st on 100 Years   100 Movies, and 76th on 100 Years   100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)  In addition, the quote "Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates  You never know what you're gonna get," was ranked 40th on 100 Years   100 Movie Quotes  The film also ranked at number 61 on Empire's list of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time In December 2011, Forrest Gump was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry  The Registry said that the film was "honored for its technological innovations (the digital insertion of Gump seamlessly into vintage archival footage), its resonance within the culture that has elevated Gump (and what he represents in terms of American innocence) to the status of folk hero, and its attempt to engage both playfully and seriously with contentious aspects of the era's traumatic history "American Film Institute lists

AFI's 100 Years   100 Movies – #71
AFI's 100 Years   100 Laughs – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years   100 Passions – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years   100 Heroes and Villains:
Forrest Gump – Nominated Hero
AFI's 100 Years   100 Movie Quotes:
"Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates  You never know what you're gonna get " – #40
"Mama says, 'Stupid is as stupid does '" – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – Nominated
AFI's 100 Years   100 Cheers – #37
AFI's 100 Years   100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #76
AFI's 10 Top 10 – Nominated Epic Film

Symbolism
Feather
Various interpretations have been suggested for the feather present at the opening and conclusion of the film  Sarah Lyall of The New York Times noted several suggestions made about the feather: "Does the white feather symbolize The Unbearable Lightness of Being? Forrest Gump's impaired intellect? The randomness of experience?" Hanks interpreted the feather as: "Our destiny is only defined by how we deal with the chance elements to our life and that's kind of the embodiment of the feather as it comes in  Here is this thing that can land anywhere and that it lands at your feet  It has theological implications that are really huge " Sally Field compared the feather to fate, saying: "It blows in the wind and just touches down here or there  Was it planned or was it just perchance?" Visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston compared the feather to an abstract painting: "It can mean so many things to so many different people "

Political interpretations
Hanks states that "the film is non-political and thus non-judgmental"  Nevertheless, CNN's Crossfire debated in 1994 whether the film promoted conservative values or was an indictment of the counterculture movement of the 1960s  Thomas Byers called it "an aggressively conservative film" in a Modern Fiction Studies article 

It has been noted that while Gump follows a very conservative lifestyle, Jenny's life is full of countercultural embrace, complete with drug use, promiscuity, and antiwar rallies, and that their eventual marriage might be a kind of reconciliation  Jennifer Hyland Wang argues in a Cinema Journal article that Jenny's death to an unnamed virus "symbolizes the death of liberal America and the death of the protests that defined a decade" in the 1960s  She also notes that the film's screenwriter, Eric Roth, developed the screenplay from the novel and transferred to Jenny "all of Gump's flaws and most of the excesses committed by Americans in the 1960s and 1970s" Other commentators believe the film forecast the 1994 Republican Revolution and used the image of Forrest Gump to promote movement leader Newt Gingrich's traditional, conservative values  Jennifer Hyland Wang observes that the film idealizes the 1950s, as made evident by the lack of "Whites Only"-signs in Gump's Southern childhood, and envisions the 1960s as a period of social conflict and confusion  She argues that this sharp contrast between the decades criticizes the counterculture values and reaffirms conservatism  Wang argues that the film was used by Republican politicians to illustrate a "traditional version of recent history" to gear voters toward their ideology for the congressional elections  Presidential candidate Bob Dole stated that the film's message was "no matter how great the adversity, the American Dream is within everybody's reach" In 1995, National Review included Forrest Gump in its list of the "Best 100 Conservative Movies" of all time, and ranked it number four on its "25 Best Conservative Movies of the Last 25 Years" list  National Review's John Miller wrote that "Tom Hanks plays the title-character, an amiable dunce who is far too smart to embrace the lethal values of the 1960s  The love of his life, wonderfully played by Robin Wright Penn, chooses a different path; she becomes a drug-addled hippie, with disastrous results "Professor James Burton at Salisbury University argues that conservatives claimed Forrest Gump as their own due less to the content of the film and more to the historical and cultural context of 1994  Burton claims that the film's content and advertising campaign were affected by the cultural climate of the 1990s, which emphasized family-values and American values, epitomized in the book Hollywood vs  America  He claims that this climate influenced the apolitical nature of the film, which allowed many different political interpretations Some commentators see the conservative readings of Forrest Gump as indicating the death of irony in American culture  Vivian Sobchack notes that the film's humor and irony rely on the assumption of the audience's historical knowledge 

Soundtrack
The 32-song soundtrack from the film was released on July 6, 1994  With the exception of a lengthy suite from Alan Silvestri's score, all the songs are previously released; the soundtrack includes songs from Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Aretha Franklin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Three Dog Night, the Byrds, the Beach Boys, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Doors, the Mamas & the Papas, the Doobie Brothers, Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Seger, and Buffalo Springfield among others  Music producer Joel Sill reflected on compiling the soundtrack: "We wanted to have very recognizable material that would pinpoint time periods, yet we didn't want to interfere with what was happening cinematically " The two-disc album has a variety of music from the 1950s–1980s performed by American artists  According to Sill, this was due to Zemeckis' request, "All the material in there is American  Bob (Zemeckis) felt strongly about it  He felt that Forrest wouldn't buy anything but American "The soundtrack reached a peak of number 2 on the Billboard album chart  The soundtrack went on to sell twelve million copies, and is one of the top selling albums in the US  The Oscar-nominated score for the film was composed and conducted by Alan Silvestri and released on August 2, 1994 

Adaptations
Novel-sequel
The screenplay for the sequel was written by Eric Roth in 2001  It is based on the original novel's sequel, Gump and Co , written by Winston Groom in 1995  Roth's script begins with Forrest sitting on a bench waiting for his son to return from school  After the September 11 attacks, Roth, Zemeckis, and Hanks decided the story was no longer "relevant " In March 2007, however, it was reported Paramount producers took another look at the screenplay On the first page of the sequel novel, Forrest Gump tells readers "Don't never let nobody make a movie of your life's story," and "Whether they get it right or wrong, it doesn't matter " The first chapter of the book suggests the real-life events surrounding the film have been incorporated into Forrest's storyline, and that Forrest got a lot of media attention as a result of the film  During the course of the sequel novel, Gump runs into Tom Hanks and at the end of the novel in the film's release, includes Gump going on The David Letterman Show and attending the Academy Awards 

Remake
The Indian film Laal Singh Chaddha, released in August 2022 and starring Aamir Khan in the title role, is an official remake of Forrest Gump, set in India between the late 1970s and the 2010s  The film was directed by Advait Chandan and produced by Aamir Khan Productions, Viacom18 Studios and Paramount Pictures 

See also
List of American football films
List of films about the sport of athletics
Passage 4:
Marni Nixon
Margaret Nixon McEathron (February 22, 1930 – July 24, 2016), known professionally as Marni Nixon, was an American soprano and ghost singer for featured actresses in musical films  She is now recognized as the singing voice of leading actresses on the soundtracks of several musicals, including Deborah Kerr in The King and I, Natalie Wood in West Side Story, and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, although her roles were concealed from audiences when the films were released  Several of the songs she dubbed appeared on AFI's 100 Years   100 Songs list Besides her voice work in films, Nixon's career included roles of her own in film, television, opera and musicals on Broadway and elsewhere throughout the United States, performances in concerts with major symphony orchestras, and recordings 

Early life
Born in Altadena, California, to Charles Nixon and Margaret Elsa (née Wittke) McEathron, Nixon was a child film actress who also played the violin and began singing at an early age in choruses, including performing solos with the Roger Wagner Chorale  She went on to study singing and opera with, among others, Vera Schwarz, Carl Ebert, Boris Goldovsky and Sarah Caldwell  In 1947, having adopted the stage name "Marni Nixon", she made her Hollywood Bowl solo debut in Carmina Burana with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under conductor Leopold Stokowski 

Career
Early films and musicals
Nixon's career in film started in 1948 when she sang the voices of the angels heard by Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc (1948)  The same year, she did her first dubbing work when she provided Margaret O'Brien's singing voice in 1948's Big City and then 1949's The Secret Garden  She sang for Jeanne Crain in Cheaper by the Dozen (1950) and dubbed Marilyn Monroe's high notes in "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)  Also in 1953, she sang for Ida Lupino in Jennifer  Nixon appeared on Broadway in 1954 in The Girl in Pink Tights In 1956, she worked closely with Deborah Kerr to supply the star's singing voice for the film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I; Kerr broke with Hollywood convention by publicly crediting Nixon's singing  In 1957 Nixon again worked with Kerr to dub her voice in An Affair to Remember  That year, she also sang for Sophia Loren in Boy on a Dolphin  In 1960, she dubbed Janet Leigh's voice in Pepe and had an on-screen chorus role in Can-Can  In 1961's West Side Story, the studio kept her work on the film (as the singing voice of Natalie Wood's Maria) a secret from Wood, and Nixon also dubbed Rita Moreno's singing in the film's "Tonight" quintet  She asked the film's producers for, but did not receive, direct royalties from her work on the film, but Leonard Bernstein contractually gave her 1/4 of one percent of his personal royalties from it  After a court case, she received royalties from sales of the soundtrack album and spoke out for the rights of ghost singers  In 1962, she also sang Wood's high notes in Gypsy  For My Fair Lady in 1964, she again worked with the female lead of the film, Audrey Hepburn, to perform the songs of Hepburn's character Eliza  Because of her uncredited dubbing work in these films, Time magazine called her "The Ghostess with the Mostest"  Nevertheless, the public did not know Nixon's face; she appeared on To Tell the Truth the same year, where two members of the panel were fooled Nixon made guest appearances with Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts, including in 1960, singing "Improvisation sur Mallarmé I" from Pli selon pli by Pierre Boulez, and on April 9, 1961, in a program entitled "Folk Music in the Concert Hall", singing three "Songs of the Auvergne" by Joseph Canteloube  Before My Fair Lady was released in theatres in 1964, Nixon played Eliza in a revival of the musical at New York City Center  Nixon's first onscreen appearance was as Sister Sophia in the 1965 film The Sound of Music  In the DVD commentary to the film, director Robert Wise comments that audiences were finally able to see the woman whose voice they knew so well  In 1967, she was the singing voice of Princess Serena in a live action and animated version of Jack and the Beanstalk on NBC  Especially in the 1960s, but also earlier and later, Nixon made concert appearances, specializing in contemporary music as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, and gave recitals at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Town Hall in New York City 

Later work
Nixon taught at the California Institute of the Arts in Santa Clarita from 1969 to 1971 and joined the faculty of the Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara, in 1980, where she taught for many years  In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she hosted a children's television show in Seattle on KOMO-TV channel 4 called Boomerang, winning four Emmy Awards as best actress, and made numerous other television appearances on variety shows and as a guest star in prime time series  Nixon's opera repertory included Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, both Blonde and Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Violetta in La traviata, the title role in La Périchole and Philine in Mignon  Her opera credits included performances at Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera and the Tanglewood Music Festival among others  In addition to giving recitals, she appeared as an oratorio and concert soloist with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra among others Nixon also toured with Liberace and Victor Borge and later in her own cabaret shows  On stage, in 1984, she originated the role of Edna Off-Broadway in Taking My Turn, composed by Gary William Friedman, receiving a nomination for a Drama Desk Award  She also originated the role of Sadie McKibben in Opal (1992), and she had a 1997 film role as Aunt Alice in I Think I Do  Under her own name, beginning in the 1980s, Nixon recorded songs by Jerome Kern, George Gershwin and various classical composers  She was nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best Classical Performance, Vocal Soloist, one for her Schönberg album and one for her Copland album In the 1998 Disney film Mulan, Nixon was the singing voice of "Grandmother Fa"  She then returned to the stage, touring the United States as Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret in 1997–1998  She eventually sang on more than 50 soundtracks  In 1999, she originated the role of Mrs  Wilson in the premiere of Ballymore, an opera by Richard Wargo at Skylight Opera Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which was taped for PBS  In regional theatre and Off-Broadway, she played Nurse in Romeo and Juliet and appeared in productions of The King and I and The Sound of Music  She also continued to teach voice and judge vocal competitions In 2000, after nearly a half century away, she returned to Broadway as Aunt Kate in James Joyce's The Dead  In 2001, Nixon replaced Joan Roberts as Heidi Schiller in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's Follies  She played Eunice Miller in 70, Girls, 70 in a 2002 production in Los Angeles  In 2003, she was again on Broadway as a replacement in role of Guido's mother in the revival of Nine  Her autobiography, I Could Have Sung All Night, was published in 2006  She performed in the 2008 North American Tour of Cameron Mackintosh's UK revival of My Fair Lady in the role of Mrs  Higgins  She then appeared as Frau Direktor Kirschner in the 2009 Encores! production of the musical Music in the Air at New York City Center 

Personal life and death
In 1950, Nixon married the first of her three husbands, Ernest Gold, who composed the theme song to the movie Exodus  They had three children, including singer and songwriter Andrew Gold  They divorced in 1969  She was married to Lajos "Fritz" Fenster from 1971 to 1975, and to woodwind player Albert Block from 1983 to his death in 2015 Nixon survived breast cancer in 1985 and 2000 but died from the disease on July 24, 2016, in New York, aged 86 

Honors
On October 27, 2008, Nixon was presented with the Singer Symposium's Distinguished Artist Award in New York City  She was also an honorary member of Sigma Alpha Iota International Women's Music Fraternity In 2011, Nixon was the recipient of the George Peabody Award for Outstanding Contributions to American Music 

Filmography
Film
Television
Passage 5:
Dimitar Andonovski
Dimitar Andonovski (Macedonian: Димитар Андоновски, born September 6, 1985 in Bitola, SR Macedonia, SFR Yugoslavia) is a Macedonian singer 
Dimitar Andonovski was a student at the Center for Music Education in his native home town of Bitola, Republic of Macedonia  He is not known only for being such a good singer, but he is also a good violinist  His first singing experience was in 1994 when he participated on children festival Si-Do in Bitola, and immediately after that, he appeared on Macedonian Television 
He rose to fame in 2003 when he was one of the candidates on M2 Play Search, organised in December 2003  He was not in the top four, so did not take part in the new group '4play'  He was one of the three backing vocalists of Tijana Dapčević in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 

Discography
Albums
Potraga Po Sozvezdie (2003)

Singles
1994: "Koga Ema Bi Znaela"
2003: "Ne Sakav Da Te Zasakam"
2006: "Seušte Me Sonuvas"
2006: "Isti Zborovi"
2008: "Mi zede se"
2009: "Zarobeni vo son"
2009: "Ova nebo znae se"
2010: "Kameno srce"
2010: "Gledaj me vo oci"
2011: "Svoj na Svoeto"
2012: "Dobro Me Poznavas"
2013: "Mesecina"
2013: "Ako Me Boli"
2013:, Vo mene Ljubovta umira,
2013:, Razbudime na polnok,
2014: "Se što ti vetiv"
2015:  "Zal mi e"
Passage 6:
Danny Jacobs (actor)
Danny Jacobs is an American actor and comedian who made his voice acting debut in 1999 with an uncredited role in Full Blast  He began his role of King Julien (originally voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen) in The Penguins of Madagascar (2008–2015) and had reprised his role in the Christmas special Merry Madagascar (2009), the Valentine's Day short Madly Madagascar (2013) and All Hail King Julien (2014–2017)  He also impersonated  Cohen's character Borat Sagdiyev (as well as a cameo appearance as a Pirate with an Eye Patch) in Epic Movie (2007) 
Besides King Julien, his voice work includes the role of Rowdy Remington in Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil (2010–2012), Victor Zsasz in Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009) and Batman: Arkham City (2011), Special Agent Porter in Justice League: Doom (2012), Snake / Snakeweed in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012), Grifter / Captain Cold in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013), Baron Mordo in Ultimate Spider-Man vs  The Sinister 6 (2016) and Heinrich Zemo in Avengers: Ultron Revolution (2016) 

Career
In 1993, Jacobs originated the role of Chico Fernández in Jeff Daniels' comedy The Vast Difference at the Purple Rose Theatre 
In 1996–97, he won acting awards in Michigan, Florida and Wisconsin for his portrayal of Aram in Richard Kalinoski's "Beast on the Moon "
In 1999, Jacobs landed an uncredited voice role as Curt in Full Blast  In the same year, he appeared in his first live-action role in Get the Hell Out of Hamtown 
In 2003, he began to tour the nation with "Triple Espresso: A Highly Caffeinated Comedy "
Jacobs portrayed Borat Sagdiyev and made a cameo appearance as a Pirate with an Eye Patch in Epic Movie (2007)  When portraying the role of Borat, Jacobs did an impression of Sacha Baron Cohen In 2008–2015, Jacobs was a substitute for Baron Cohen as the voice of King Julien in The Penguins of Madagascar, again as an impression of Baron Cohen (Jacobs also provided additional voices in the series)  In 2011, he won a Daytime Emmy Award for the role  Jacobs reprised his role in Merry Madagascar (2009) and Madly Madagascar (2013)  In 2014–2017, he returned to the role in All Hail King Julien  In Penguins of Madagascar (2014), Jacobs once again reprised his role as King Julien  He had also done voice-overs in various commercials 
In addition to the jobs that led to All Hail King Julien, Jacobs had been doing voice-over work for animated television series, including Phineas and Ferb (in which he provided additional voices) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (in which he voiced Snake / Snakeweed), as well as several video games  He had said that animation, much like the theatre, gives actors a chance to play a wide range of roles  He said, "I can play any character of any ethnicity, any age, even any gender  And that's a freedom the camera doesn't give you  It's an incredibly freeing thing " He also stated that King Julien is his favorite voice role and would gladly reprise his role if ever asked  Jacobs had received more recognition as King Julien than the character's predecessor Baron Cohen  In Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012), Jacobs provided the singing voice of King Julien for the soundtrack 
He had a voice role in Teen Titans Go! as George Washington 

Personal life
Jacobs is a devout Catholic of Lebanese descent  On July 13, 2015, Jacobs donated to Kids Kicking Cancer and had entertained some children with his King Julien voice 

Awards and nominations
Jacobs was nominated for the 2010 Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Television Production for his voice role of King Julien in Merry Madagascar (2009), but lost the award to Tom Kenny He won a 2011 Daytime Emmy Award and 2015 Daytime Emmy Award for his voice role of King Julien in The Penguins of Madagascar (2008–2015) and All Hail King Julien (2014–2017) 

2010: Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Television Production – Nominated
2011: Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program – Won
2015: Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program – Won

Filmography
Film
Full Blast as Curt (voice) (uncredited) (1999)
Get the Hell Out of Hamtown (1999)
Grounds Zero as Omar (2006)
The Mikes as Paramedic (2006)
Epic Movie as Borat Sagdiyev / Pirate with Eye Patch (2007)
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa as Tourist with New York T-shirt (voice) (2008)
Batman: Year One as Arnold John Flass' Attorney (voice) (2011)
Justice League: Doom as Special Agent Porter (voice) (2012)
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted as King Julien XIII (singing voice in soundtrack only) / Croupier / Circus Master (voice) (2012)
Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox as Grifter / Captain Cold (2013)
Penguins of Madagascar as King Julien XIII (voice) (2014)

Television
Olive, the Other Reindeer (voice) (1999)
Futurama as Additional Voices (voice) (uncredited) (1999)
Mad Men as Yoram Ben Shulhai (1 episode) (2007)
The Penguins of Madagascar as King Julien XIII / Roy / Hornets / Additional Voices (2008–2015)
Phineas and Ferb as Additional Voices (voice) (2009–2013)
Merry Madagascar as King Julien XIII (voice) (2009)
Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil as Rowdy Remington (voice) (2010–2012)
Ben 10: Ultimate Alien as Captain / Police Dispatch / Dr  Pervis (voice) (2012)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as Snake / Snakeweed (voice) (2012)
Madly Madagascar as King Julien XIII (voice) (2013)
Teen Titans Go! as George Washington (voice) (2014)
All Hail King Julien as King Julien XIII / Pancho (voice) (2014–2017)
Miles from Tomorrowland as Admiral Watson / Additional Voices (voice) (2015)
Pig Goat Banana Cricket as Barbershop Quartet / Cuddles, Jr  / Lasagna / Townperson #2 (voice) (2015)
Ultimate Spider-Man vs  The Sinister 6 as Baron Mordo / Additional Voices (voice) (2016)
Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures as Raam / Yeppau (voice) (2016)
Avengers: Ultron Revolution as Heinrich Zemo (voice) (2016)
Transformers: Robots in Disguise as Brother Gunter (voice) (2016)
Apple & Onion as Hoagie (voice) (2018)
Blood of Zeus as King Periander / King Acrisius (voice) (2020)
Animaniacs as Starbox (voice) (2020)

Video games
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa as King Julien XIII (voice) (2008)
Batman: Arkham Asylum as Victor Zsasz / Frank Boles / Masked Guard #1 / Robert Sterling (voice) (2009)
Madagascar Kartz as King Julien XIII (voice) (2009)
The Godfather 2 as Hyman Roth (voice) (2009)
White Knight Chronicles as additional voices (voice) (2010)
White Knight Chronicles 2 as Nanazel (voice) (2010)
Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet as Annihilus Bugs (voice) (2010)
The Penguins of Madagascar: Dr  Blowhole Returns – Again! as King Julien XIII (voice) (2011)
Batman: Arkham City as Victor Zsasz (voice) (2011)
Madagascar 3: The Video Game as King Julien and Stefano (voice) (2012)
Skylanders series as Swarm and additional Voices (voice) (2015)
Avengers as Hank Pym (2020)

Discography
"Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)," performing as King Julien XIII's singing voice (2012)
"Wannabe," performing as King Julien XIII's singing voice (2012)
"Hot in Herre", performing as King Julien XIII's singing voice (2012)
"Afro Circus / I Like to Move It," performing as King Julien XIII's singing voice, along with Marty (Chris Rock) (2012)
All songs featured here are attributed to the soundtrack of Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
Passage 7:
You'll Lose a Good Thing
"You'll Lose a Good Thing" is a popular song written by rhythm and blues artist Barbara Lynn Ozen, who, performing as Barbara Lynn, scored a 1962 Top 10 hit, peaking at #8 and also the number 1 spot on the R&B charts, with her bluesy rendition of the song 

Cover versions
Freddy Fender retained those bluesy, soulful elements when he recorded a country version of the song in 1975  In April 1976, the song was his fourth No  1 song on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart Many other versions of the song have been recorded over the years by artists including Aretha Franklin, Carla Thomas, Denise LaSalle, Dina Carroll, McAlmont & Butler and Lucinda Williams 

Use in media
Barbara Lynn's recording is featured in the film Hairspray 

Charts
Barbara Lynn
Freddy Fender
Year-end charts
Passage 8:
Heaven Help the Child
Heaven Help the Child is a 1973 studio album by country singer-songwriter Mickey Newbury  The album was Newbury's third consecutive release recorded at Cinderella Studios  Noted for its dramatic remakes of four previous Newbury songs: "Sweet Memories" and "Good Morning Dear" from Harlequin Melodies, "Sunshine" from Sings His Own, and "San Francisco Mabel Joy" from Looks Like Rain, the album is considered equal among Newbury's acclaimed Looks Like Rain and Frisco Mabel Joy  Apart from its definitive versions of three of Newbury's early songwriting hits, the album is also acclaimed for its title track, with its multi-generational narrative, the haunting "Cortelia Clark", and the bluegrass classic "Why You Been Gone So Long"  In his AllMusic review of the LP, Thom Jurek declares, "Newbury, for the third time in as many recording sessions, came up with a record that defies categorization  And for the third time in a row, he had done the impossible, created a masterpiece, a work of perfection "Heaven Help the Child was collected for CD issue on the eight-disc Mickey Newbury Collection from Mountain Retreat, Newbury's own label in the mid-1990s, along with nine other Newbury albums from 1969–1981  In 2011, it was reissued again as part of the four-disc Mickey Newbury box set An American Trilogy on Saint Cecilia Knows, alongside two other albums recorded at Cinderella Sound, Looks Like Rain and Frisco Mabel Joy  This release marks the first time that Heaven Help the Child has been released on CD in remastered form, after the original master tapes (long thought to have been destroyed in a fire) were rediscovered in 2010 

Track listing
All tracks written by Mickey Newbury 

"Heaven Help the Child" – 5:16
"Good Morning Dear" – 5:18
"Sunshine" – 4:34
"Sweet Memories" – 3:28
"Why You Been Gone So Long" – 3:27
"Cortelia Clark" – 5:12
"Song for Susan" – 4:30
"San Francisco Mabel Joy" – 5:43

Personnel
Mickey Newbury
Wayne Moss
David Briggs
Charlie McCoy
Weldon Myrick
Bobby Thompson
Norbert Putnam

Selected cover recordings
"San Francisco Mabel Joy" was heavily covered as both a folk and country song in the early 1970s  Joan Baez recorded the song for her 1971 hit double album Blessed Are      Waylon Jennings included his version on his 1973 breakthrough Lonesome, On'ry and Mean  The song was also featured on Kenny Rogers' 1978 country smash The Gambler and John Denver's recording is on his 1981 album Some Days Are Diamonds  The Box Tops recorded a presumably early version under the title "Georgia Farm Boy," which was included as a bonus track on the 2000 reissue of The Letter/Neon Rainbow 
"Sweet Memories" is one of Newbury's most prominent early songwriting successes, and became an early signature song  The first hit version was released by Andy Williams but the song has also been recorded by over 70 artists such as Brenda Lee, Ray Charles, The Everly Brothers, Brook Benton, with recent versions by Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Ray Price on the 2007 album Last of the Breed and by The Time Jumpers for which they received a Grammy nomination in 2008 
"Good Morning Dear" has been recorded by Roy Orbison, Don Gibson, The Box Tops, Ray Charles, as well as Pat Boone, Tennessee Ernie Ford and Frank Ifield 
"Sunshine" was originally released as a single by RCA in the late 1960s  Newbury's song has been recorded by Gene Vincent, Ray Stevens and Kenny Rogers and the First Edition
"Cortelia Clark" has been recorded by Josh White Jr 
"Why You Been Gone So Long" is Newbury's second most recorded composition  It has been recorded by Carl Perkins, Gene Parsons, Clarence White, Chris Hillman, Tony Rice, Johnny Darrell and David Allan Coe among others  The song has also been recorded by Jessie Colter (appearing on the 1976 RCA compilation Wanted! The Outlaws) and performed as a duet by Jerry Lee Lewis and Dolly Parton on Parton's television show 
"Heaven Help the Child" was covered by Bill Callahan for a 2012 split single release from Saint Cecilia Knows and Drag City 
Passage 9:
Home Alone Tonight
"Home Alone Tonight" is a song recorded by American country music artist Luke Bryan as a duet with Karen Fairchild of American country music group Little Big Town for his fifth studio album, Kill the Lights (2015)  Upon the release of the album, the song entered the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart at number 33 on the strength of digital downloads  It was serviced to American country radio on November 23, 2015 as the album's third official single  The song was written by Jody Stevens, Cole Taylor, Jaida Dreyer and Tommy Cecil 

Live performances
Bryan and Fairchild performed the song live at the 2015 American Music Awards 

Content
The song is a mid-tempo ballad in which a man and woman meet in a bar and plot revenge on their former lovers together 

Critical reception
An uncredited review from Taste of Country was favorable, stating that it "features more progressive production than 'Strip It Down,' but isn’t quite as edgy as 'Kick the Dust Up ' One would hardly call the arrangement organic, but that fits the mood  The two spontaneous lovers promise they won’t regret what’s to come, even though both know it’s not true  It’s an inevitability that many will relate to "

Commercial performance
The song debuted at number 33 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart dated of August 29, 2015, the week the album was released, selling 13,000 copies in its first week  It debuted at number 55 on the Country Airplay chart dated of November 14, 2015 in anticipation of its official release  After Bryan and Fairchild performed the song on the 2015 American Music Awards, it debuted at number 97 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated of December 12, 2015, selling 16,000 copies  It became Bryan's thirteenth consecutive (and fifteenth overall) number one country music single on the Country Airplay chart dated of February 13, 2016  The song has sold 441,000 copies in the US as of April 2016 

Charts
Certifications
Passage 10:
Rain Is a Good Thing
"Rain Is a Good Thing" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Luke Bryan  It was released in January 2010 as the second single from his 2009 album Doin' My Thing  The song became Bryan's first number one hit on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for the weeks of July 24 and 31, 2010  Bryan wrote this song with Dallas Davidson 

Content
"Rain Is a Good Thing" is an up-tempo tune in which the narrator explains how rain can affect life by facilitating the growth of corn, which in turn is processed into whiskey, which in turn causes his significant other to "feel a little frisky "
Bryan told The Boot that he and co-writer Dallas Davidson "used to have the saying, 'Rain makes corn, and corn makes whiskey,' and it was just something we always said  If we were a little bummed out about the rain […] we'd be like, 'Well, rain makes corn, and corn makes whiskey,' and that would kind of make us feel a little better about it […] We didn't start with 'Rain Is a Good Thing' as a title and wrote to it  We just started with 'rain makes corn, and corn makes whiskey' and we kind of arrived at 'Rain Is a Good Thing '"The song is set in the key of E Major, with Bryan's vocals ranging from B3 to G♯5 One of the lyrics in the second verse, 'Ringin' out our soakin' clothes,' is incorrect, despite near universal circulation  It should read 'Wringin' out our soakin' clothes,' as wet clothes do not ring, but one does wring clothes to remove water from them 

Critical reception
Matt Bjorke of Roughstock stated that the song "spins the old 'where I'm from' lyric into a much more pliable song chock full of that charm "

Charitable contribution
Bryan appeared on an episode of the 2010 season of Celebrity Apprentice  He, along with singer Emily West, were presented as up-and-coming artists in need of an image makeover  The two teams on the show each took on one singer in an attempt to help them become more marketable  Bryan performed "Rain is a Good Thing" on the program  The winner of the challenge was Cyndi Lauper, whose charity (The True Colors Fund, which advocates for gay and lesbian rights) received 20% of all sales of the single 

Music video
The accompanying music video for the song, directed by Shaun Silva, was released on iTunes on February 9, 2010  The video was filmed on October 5, 2009 at a concert at Hurricane Plantation in Claxton, Georgia 

Chart performance
The song debuted on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart at number 60 for the week of January 23, 2010  On the chart dated for July 24, 2010, it became Bryan's first number one single on the Hot Country Songs chart 

Year-end charts
Certifications



ground_truth: Karen Fairchild