title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: Each episode includes Tim's own Binford-sponsored home improvement show, called "Tool Time", a show-within-a-show. In hosting this show, Tim is joined by his friend and mild-mannered co-host Al Borland (Richard Karn), and a "Tool Time girl"—first Lisa (Pamela Anderson) and later Heidi (Debbe Dunning)—whose main duty is to introduce the pair at the beginning of the show with the line "Does everybody know what time it is?" In reply, the audience yells, "TOOL TIME!" The Tool Time girl also assists Tim and Al during the show by bringing them tools.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: Although revealed to be an excellent salesman and TV personality, Tim is spectacularly accident-prone as a handyman, often causing massive disasters on and off the set, to the consternation of his co-workers and family. Many "Tool Time" viewers assume that the accidents on the show are done on purpose, to demonstrate the consequences of using tools improperly. Many of Tim's accidents are caused by his devices being used in an unorthodox or overpowered manner, designed to illustrate his mantra "More power!" This popular catchphrase was not uttered after "Home Improvement"s seventh season until Tim's last line in the series finale—the last two words ever spoken on the show.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: "Tool Time" was conceived as a parody of the PBS home-improvement show "This Old House". Tim and Al are caricatures of the two principal cast members of "This Old House", host Bob Vila and master carpenter Norm Abram. Al Borland has a beard and always wears plaid shirts when taping an episode, reflecting Norm Abram's appearance on "This Old House". Bob Vila appeared as a guest star on several episodes of "Home Improvement", while Tim Allen and Pamela Anderson both appeared on Bob Vila's show "Home Again".


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: The "Tool Time" theme music, an early 1960s-style saxophone-dominated instrumental rock tune, was sometimes used as the closing theme music for "Home Improvement", especially when behind the credits were running the blooper scenes that took place during the taping of a "Tool Time" segment.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: "Home Improvement" had been in the works between Tim Allen and the writing/producing team of Carmen Finestra, David McFadzean, and Matt Williams since the summer of 1990. Originally, the project's proposed title was "Hammer Time", both a play on the catchphrase made popular by artist MC Hammer and the name of the fictional fix-it show within the series, which was also called "Hammer Time". By the time ABC committed to the project in early 1991, Allen and his team had already changed the title to "Home Improvement". The show hosted by Tim Taylor in the shooting script for "Home Improvement" was still called "Hammer Time" when the first pilot with Frances Fisher was filmed in April 1991. The catalyst for the series' name change was to represent the aspect of fixing problems within the family and home life, as well as the use of mechanics and tools. Once the second phase of the pilot was produced, with all the actors that made the final cut into the series (including Patricia Richardson), Tim Taylor's "Hammer Time" became "Tool Time".


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: As mentioned above, the first pilot was produced in April 1991, with Frances Fisher playing Jill Taylor. Fisher, primarily known as a dramatic actress, was well qualified for the co-starring role but was viewed by the studio audience as not being comedic enough, and too serious in her line delivery. The producers tried to work with Fisher on adapting to the situation comedy setting, but shortly after the pilot wrapped post-production, they decided to recast her.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: Before the first pilot was shot, actor John Bedford Lloyd was in the running for one of two roles; that of Tim's "Tool Time" co-host (originally named "Glen") and the role of Wilson. Bedford Lloyd eventually got the part of Wilson, but his agent later made claims that the actor was unaware that most of his scenes would require his face to be partially hidden behind a fence. For this reason, the crew received news just one day prior to taping the first pilot that Bedford Lloyd had dropped out. Casting immediately contacted the other actor considered for the role, Earl Hindman.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: Stephen Tobolowsky was tapped to play the "Tool Time" co-host, Glen. However, he was still busy with a movie that was in the middle of production at the time the first pilot was to be shot. Therefore, the producers set out to cast an alternate character that would stand in as Tim's co-host for the pilot, or for however many episodes were required until Tobolowsky was available. The casting department auditioned Richard Karn, for what would be his first major appearance on a TV sitcom; the character of Al Borland was created from there. After the first few episodes completed with Patricia Richardson as Jill, Tobolowsky was still tied up with his other commitments, and Karn found himself in his role permanently when Tobolowsky decided he would have no time to do a series. Thus, the character of Glen never came into being.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: In the first two years of the show, Pamela Anderson played the part of Tim's Tool Girl, Lisa, on "Tool Time", but left the show to focus on her role on the syndicated series "Baywatch". Her last episode as a series regular was "The Great Race", which aired on May 19, 1993. Tim's new assistant, electrician Heidi Keppert, played by Debbe Dunning, replaced Anderson as the Tool Time Girl for the following third season, starting with "Maybe Baby", which aired on September 15, 1993. Dunning had previously appeared (not as Heidi) in the episode "Overactive Glance" from season 2 where she played an obsessive "Tool Time" fan named Kiki. Anderson did reprise the role of Lisa on the sixth-season finale episode "The Kiss and the Kiss-Off", which aired on May 20, 1997.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: In the show's eighth and final season, the middle child Randy left for an environmental study program in Costa Rica in the episode "Adios", which aired on September 29, 1998. This was done because Jonathan Taylor Thomas reportedly wanted to take time off to focus on his academics. His last appearance on "Home Improvement" was the eighth season Christmas episode "Home for the Holidays", which aired on December 8, 1998. He did not return to the show for the series finale (as he was busy with his education and filming the movie "Speedway Junky", released in 2001), only appearing in archived footage.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: The series ended after eight seasons in 1999. Richardson was offered $25 million to do a ninth season; Allen was offered $50 million. The two declined the offer and the series came to an end as a result.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: Throughout the show, Tim Taylor would often be wearing sweatshirts or T-shirts from various Michigan-based colleges and universities. These were usually sent by the schools to the show for him to wear during an episode. Because Allen considered Michigan his home state, the rule was that only Michigan schools would get the free advertising. There were two notable exceptions to the general rule that Tim only supported Michigan educational institutions on the show. First, during the episode "Workshop 'Til You Drop" Tim wears a Wofford College (South Carolina) sweatshirt. Second, during the episode "The Wood, the Bad and the Hungry" Tim wears an Owens Community College (Ohio) sweatshirt.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: In the United States, "Home Improvement" began airing in broadcast syndication in September 1995, distributed via Buena Vista Television (now Disney–ABC Domestic Television) and continued to be syndicated until 2007, in a manner similar to "Seinfeld" and "The Simpsons" after they began airing in broadcast syndication. Episodes of "Home Improvement" were not aired in order of their production code number or original airdate. On cable, the series started airing in 2002 on superstations TBS and WGN America. It later ran on Nick at Nite and its sister network TV Land, and eventually the Hallmark Channel in 2013.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has released all eight seasons on DVD in Region 1, 2, and 4. Season 8 has the "Backstage Pass" (which immediately followed "The Long and Winding Road, Part III")


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: On May 10, 2011, Walt Disney Studios released a complete series box set entitled "Home Improvement: 20th Anniversary Complete Collection" on DVD in Region 1. The 25-disc collection features all 204 episodes of the series as well as all special features contained on the previously released season sets; it is encased in special collectible packaging, a "Home Improvement" toolbox with a Binford "All-In-One Tool" tape measure.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: The Region 1 DVDs are on three discs (with the exception of the final season set, which has four discs), whereas the Region 2 DVDs are presented across four discs, but in Germany the fourth to seventh seasons are also three disc sets. The Region 2 packaging and programme menus for Season 1 vary compared to the Region 1 releases. The Season 3 menus in Region 1 are in widescreen, but in Region 2. The Region 1 releases of Seasons 2 and 3 consist of (deliberate) "holes" in the outer packaging—these do not exist in the Region 2 releases; in fact, the Season 3 outer packaging is physically printed where the hole would be in the Region 1 packaging.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: Seasons 5 and 6 accidentally contain some slightly edited episodes, most likely due to using syndication prints. And the episode "The Feminine Mistake" from season 6, doesn't contain the 3D version of the episode as originally aired on ABC, instead using the 2D version as seen in syndication.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: It has been mentioned on review sites about the lack of episode commentaries and bonus features on the DVDs (except unaired blooper reels). In an interview on About.com, Tim Allen stated that it was a done deal that the DVDs would not contain interviews or episode commentaries. Whether this was before or after someone at Disney ordered the three commentaries available on the Season 1 DVDs is unknown.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: During its eight-season run, the show always finished in the top 10 in the Nielsen ratings during a season, despite never making the #1 slot (its highest finish was a second-place spot in the show's third season; behind "60 Minutes"). The series finale became the fifth highest-rated series finale television program of the 1990s and the ninth overall series finale ever presented on a single network in television history, watched by 35.5 percent of the households sampled in America, and 21.6 percent of television viewers.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: Though never a hit with critics, "Home Improvement" received numerous awards and nominations in its eight-season run. Notable awards and nominations include: Golden Globe Awards, Primetime Emmy Awards, Kids' Choice Awards, Young Artist Awards, YoungStar Awards, and ASCAP Award.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: On Metacritic, the first season holds a score of 64 out of 100, based on 18 critics and the second season holds a score of 75 out of 100, based on 5 critics, both indicating "generally favorable reviews.”


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: Tim Allen, Richard Karn, Casey Sander, and Debbe Dunning had a reunion in a television special named "Tim Allen Presents: A User's Guide to Home Improvement" in 2003 (a by then terminally-ill Earl Hindman did voice-overs, befitting his never-seen persona of Wilson; Hindman died shortly after the special aired). Allen presented his own favorite clips from the show, insider's tips, personal reflections and a question and answer session with the live audience.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: On August 3, 2011, in Pacific Palisades, California, the surviving main cast members reunited for "Entertainment Weekly" magazine, including Jonathan Taylor Thomas, whom the cast had not seen since 1998.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: Karn guest starred in two episodes of Tim Allen's 2010s ABC/Fox sitcom "Last Man Standing" in 2013. Thomas has also appeared on "Last Man Standing", and has directed episodes of the series.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: In 2015, Patricia Richardson guest starred on "Last Man Standing" in the episode "Helen Potts", playing the episode's titular character. Thomas made a cameo in the episode, playing Richardson's son.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: On May 5, 2015, "Hollywood Life" reported that Allen and Karn had admitted talking about getting back together as a cast for a "Home Improvement" reboot or reunion show. Karn was quoted as saying, "There is always a chance, absolutely. Would I be on board? Yeah, I think so! I would love to see what the story lines could be, it could be very funny!"


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: On February 18, 2020, "CinemaBlend" reported that Allen wants to bring back "Home Improvement" for a revival:


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: "I like the idea of doing it as a one-off, like a one-hour movie [versus a full-fledged revival series]. I like the idea of finding out where the boys are now, and where... "Tool Time" would be in today's world. I just think it's a marvelous idea, and all the actors think it's a great idea."


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: In January 2021, Allen reprised his role of Tim Taylor in an episode of "Last Man Standing" titled "Dual Time".


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: Premiering in February 2021, Tim Allen and Richard Karn, teamed up with YouTuber DIYer April Wilkerson, on History Channel unscripted competition show "Assembly Required"; where home handymen/makers/DIYers/inventors, compete to build souped up home tools a la "Tool Time" from "Home Improvement", with supplied parts and pieces, and some of their own junk at home.


title: Home Improvement (TV series)

text: Premiering in June 2022, Tim Allen and Richard Karn, teamed up with YouTuber DIYer April Wilkerson, on History Channel documentary series "More Power"; where the hosts cover the history of tools, again a la "Tool Time" from "Home Improvement".


title: Esteban Ocon

text: Esteban José Jean-Pierre Ocon-Khelfane (; born 17 September 1996) is a French racing driver who competes for Alpine in Formula One. He made his Formula One debut for Manor Racing in the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix, replacing Rio Haryanto. He moved to Force India in 2017, partnering Mexican driver Sergio Pérez for the 2017 and 2018 Formula 1 seasons. Ocon was a part of the Mercedes driver development programme and worked as a reserve driver for Mercedes in 2019 until his move to Renault in 2020. He took his maiden Formula One podium at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix and maiden victory at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix. He is currently racing for the BWT Alpine Formula 1 Team.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: Esteban Ocon was born in Évreux, Normandy to Sabrine Khelfane and Laurent Ocon, a mechanic who owns a garage in Évreux. His paternal family is originally from Málaga. While competing in karting, his parents had to sell their family home, which included his father's garage, to fund his karting career. After selling the house, they lived and travelled to races in a caravan Ocon also used as a motor home.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: , Ocon lives in Geneva, Switzerland. Besides his native French language, Ocon also speaks in English, Spanish and Italian.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: Ocon entered karting in 2006, when he finished eighth in the Minime class of the French Championship. He won the championship in 2007 and continued his success by winning the Cadet class in 2008 ahead of Anthoine Hubert and Pierre Gasly. He then spent three years racing in the KF3 category and competed in the Spanish Championship and Italian Open Masters. He won the French KF3 title in 2010 and finished as runner-up in the WSK Euro Series in 2011 behind Max Verstappen.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: In 2012, Ocon made his debut in single-seaters, taking part in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 with Koiranen Motorsport. He finished fourteenth with four point-scoring finishes, including being on the podium at his home round at Circuit Paul Ricard. He also contested a partial campaign in the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps with Koiranen, finishing seventh with two podiums, both of which came at the Red Bull Ring.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: He remained in the series for 2013, switching to the ART Junior Team. He recorded one pole position and won two races including at Circuit Paul Ricard, finishing the season in third place behind Pierre Gasly and Oliver Rowland. A partial campaign in the Northern European Cup produced a race win at the Hockenheimring and two further podiums.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: Ocon made his debut in Formula Three machinery at the 2013 Macau Grand Prix with Prema Powerteam. He stalled at the start of the main race but went on to finish tenth. He continued his collaboration with Prema into the 2014 FIA Formula 3 European Championship. He topped the standings at the first round at Silverstone Circuit and remained in the lead of the championship for the rest of the season. With two rounds to spare, he made a brief appearance in the 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 Series with Comtec Racing. Ocon was crowned FIA Formula 3 European champion with three races remaining, ahead of Tom Blomqvist and Max Verstappen. He finished on the podium in twenty-one of the thirty-three races, winning nine, and recorded fifteen pole positions. Ocon made a second appearance at the Macau Grand Prix in 2014. He qualified fourth for the main race but was eliminated by a multi-car collision on the first lap.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: Ocon moved to the GP3 Series for 2015 with ART Grand Prix. Despite only scoring one race victory (two other victories were denied due to penalties), he won the championship by eight points ahead of Luca Ghiotto. Ocon recorded three pole positions and fourteen podium finishes (including nine consecutive second-places) from eighteen races.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: Ocon drove for Mercedes-Benz in the first ten races of the 2016 DTM season, alongside his Formula One reserve driver role at Renault. He scored two points finishing ninth in the first race at Circuit Zandvoort, before he was promoted to a Formula 1 race seat. He was replaced by Felix Rosenqvist following his promotion.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: Ocon's first experience of a Formula One car was on 22 October 2014, driving the Lotus E20 as part of a two-day test for Lotus F1. A month later, he made his Grand Prix weekend debut for Lotus during the first practice session at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: In May 2015, Ocon was called up by Force India to drive at the post-race test in Barcelona, after Pascal Wehrlein was forced to withdraw due to illness. Prior to him claiming the GP3 title, it was announced that Ocon would enter the Mercedes Junior Team. In February 2016, it was announced that Ocon would also act as reserve driver for the Renault Sport F1 team for the season. He took part in Friday practice sessions at four Grands Prix for the team.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: On 10 August 2016, Rio Haryanto was dropped from the backmarker Manor Racing team after his sponsors had failed to meet their contractual obligations. Ocon was named as his replacement for the second half of the season, driving alongside Pascal Wehrlein. Ocon made his Formula One debut at the , finishing sixteenth. He earned his best result of twelfth in the rain-affected Brazilian Grand Prix, dropping out of the points positions on the final lap.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: On 10 November 2016, Force India announced that they had signed Ocon for the season as part of his multi-year contract with Mercedes, with Sergio Pérez as his new teammate. Ocon scored his first Formula One point in his first race for Force India at the , and scored points at the next four races including fifth place at the .


title: Esteban Ocon

text: Following a twelfth place finish at the , Ocon recorded twelve consecutive points finishes but was often involved in incidents with teammate Pérez. At the , Pérez ignored requests from the team to let Ocon past to challenge Daniel Ricciardo for third place. The two drivers collided at the , forcing Pérez into retirement and giving Ocon a puncture. They made contact again at the , where Ocon was squeezed towards a wall leading up to the Eau Rouge complex. Ocon later remarked that he was "furious" with Pérez and that he "risked [their] lives". Force India team owner Vijay Mallya stated that the repeated incidents were "very concerning" and that he would enforce team orders thereon.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: Ocon started the in third place after the Red Bull drivers faced penalties, the highest grid position of his career. He went on to finish the race sixth. He spent much of the in third place and eventually finished fifth. His streak of finishing twenty-seven consecutive races ended at the , where he collided with Romain Grosjean on the first lap. He finished his first full season in Formula One eighth in the drivers' championship, scoring 87 points to Pérez's 100.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: Ocon continued alongside Pérez at Force India in . Ocon's first points of the season came with a tenth-place finish at the . At the , he was involved in a first-lap collision with Kimi Räikkönen that ended his race, whilst teammate Pérez went on to claim a podium finish. Ocon retired with an oil leak at the next race, the . He recorded five more points finishes before the summer break, but retired from his home race, the , after a first-lap collision with Pierre Gasly.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: After Force India's financial collapse and the purchasing of its assets by Canadian businessman Lawrence Stroll – father of Williams driver Lance Stroll – during the summer break, the new owners confirmed that Ocon and Pérez would remain with the team for the rest of the season. It was later revealed that Ocon had an "informal agreement" to join Renault for before the team unexpectedly signed Daniel Ricciardo, leaving Ocon's future in doubt.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: At Racing Point Force India's first race, the , Ocon achieved the joint-highest starting position of his career with third and went on to finish sixth. Ocon and Pérez collided on the first lap of the , causing Ocon to crash into a wall and end his race. The team described the collision as "unacceptable" and banned the drivers from racing each other. Pérez later apologised for his role in the accident. Ocon was disqualified from eighth place at the after his car was found to have exceeded fuel flow limits. At the , he collided with race leader Max Verstappen whilst attempting to un-lap himself, damaging both cars. Both drivers were able to continue racing and Ocon received a ten-second stop-and-go penalty for the incident. They argued just after the race (in which Verstappen finished second) and pushed each other several times. Both drivers were summoned by the FIA and Verstappen was ordered to undertake two days of public service "at the discretion of the FIA" for making deliberate physical contact with Ocon.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: On 23 November 2018, it was announced that Ocon would join Mercedes as their reserve driver for after it became clear that he would be replaced at Racing Point by team owner Lawrence Stroll’s son Lance – an outcome that was confirmed a week later. Ocon did not take part in a Grand Prix weekend during the year. He claimed to have been in discussions with Mercedes for the season, remarking that he was "very close" to replacing Valtteri Bottas at the team. Mercedes ultimately decided to continue with Bottas.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: Ocon joined Renault for 2020, signing a two-year contract and marking his return to Formula One as a full-time driver. He replaced Nico Hülkenberg and partnered with Daniel Ricciardo. Ocon qualified fourteenth on his Renault debut at the Austrian Grand Prix and finished eighth. He was running in seventh place at the when he retired with a cooling issue. At the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, he was issued a grid penalty after impeding George Russell in qualifying and started fourteenth, but improved to finish eighth in the race. His best race finish since 2017 came at the , where he qualified sixth and finished fifth behind teammate Ricciardo.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: Ocon's brakes caught fire during a safety car period at the . The team was unable to repair the damage during the red flag period which occurred soon after, and Ocon failed to make the restart. He experienced further mechanical retirements at the Eifel Grand Prix and the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. He qualified seventh for the and made his way into third place by the first corner, but separate collisions with Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas resulted in him finishing outside the points in eleventh place.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: Ocon started eleventh at the . He had improved to fifth place by lap 54 of 87, assisted by collisions on the opening lap and drivers making second pit stops. A virtual safety car (VSC) period followed, which third-placed Carlos Sainz Jr. and fourth-placed Ricciardo attempted to take advantage of by entering the pits. However, the VSC period ended whilst they were in the pit lane, nullifying their advantage and promoting Ocon to third place. He was soon overtaken by Sergio Pérez, however pit stop issues for the leading Mercedes cars allowed Ocon to claim his first Formula One podium by finishing second, Renault's best race result since . He ended the season twelfth in the drivers' championship, scoring 62 points to Ricciardo's 119.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: Renault rebranded as Alpine F1 Team for the season. The team signed two-time world champion Fernando Alonso to partner Ocon after Daniel Ricciardo left for McLaren. In the team's first race as Alpine, the , Ocon was rear-ended by Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin. Ocon finished the race thirteenth and Vettel later apologised for the incident. Ocon was classified ninth at the ahead of Alonso in tenth, earning the team their first points under the Alpine name. His first retirement of the season came at the with a turbocharger failure. He struggled with tyre wear and finished fourteenth at the French Grand Prix, qualified seventeenth for both the Styrian and Austrian Grands Prix and retired from the latter after a first-lap collision with Antonio Giovinazzi.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: Ocon started eighth at the . Multiple collisions ahead saw him promoted to second place at the first corner, which became first place when race leader Lewis Hamilton pitted for dry-weather tyres one lap later than the rest of the field. Ocon held on to the lead for the remainder of the race, fending off Sebastian Vettel to take his and Alpine's maiden Formula One victory. This win was followed by points finishes at the next three races. The took place in damp conditions and Ocon finished tenth having run the entire race distance on one set of intermediate-weather tyres. This was the first time a driver had completed a full race distance without making a pit stop since .


title: Esteban Ocon

text: A collision with Antonio Giovinazzi at the broke Ocon's front wing and ultimately led to retirement. A fifth-place finish at the was followed by a near-podium at the ; Ocon briefly led the race at its first restart and ran in third place for most of the race, but was passed by Valtteri Bottas shortly before the chequered flag, finishing just 0.102 seconds behind. Ocon ended the season eleventh in the drivers' championship, scoring 74 points to Alonso's 81.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: Alpine retained Ocon and Alonso for the season. Ocon finished seventh at the season-opening despite receiving a penalty for colliding with Mick Schumacher. He qualified fifth and finished sixth at the where a close battle with Alonso ended with Ocon being ordered by the team to hold his position. A crash in practice for the forced him to miss qualifying and start last on the grid. He recovered in the race to finish ninth and was promoted to eighth when Alonso received a penalty. At the Spanish Grand Prix, Ocon qualified twelfth and finished seventh, ahead of Alonso, after holding off the fast-charging Lando Norris. Ocon finished ninth at the but was demoted to twelfth by a penalty for colliding with Lewis Hamilton.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: At the British Grand Prix, Ocon qualified fifteenth due to battery issues and retired from the race with a fuel pump problem, despite the significant upgrade packages brought to the Alpine A522. Five points finishes followed, including fifth at the . Ocon qualified fifth at the but was demoted to sixteenth by an engine component penalty. He recovered in the race to score points in seventh place. He started seventeenth at the having experienced brake problems in qualifying and then retired from the race with an engine failure. Ocon's best result of the season thus far came at the , where he held off Lewis Hamilton to finish fourth. Ocon was eliminated in the first qualifying session Q1 and started eighteenth at the United States Grand Prix He finished eleventh after taking new power unit elements and starting from the pit lane. He was involved in separate collisions with teammate Alonso in the sprint, with the damage to his car dropping him to seventeenth place. He recovered to score points in the race.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: Ocon ended the season eighth in the drivers' championship, equalling his best result previously achieved in 2017. He scored 92 points to Alonso's 81.


title: Esteban Ocon

text: Ocon has signed a contract to remain with Alpine until the end of the 2024 season. He is set to drive alongside former karting rival Pierre Gasly for as Alonso departs to Aston Martin.


title: RCA Records

text: RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Arista Records, and Epic Records. The label has released multiple genres of music, including pop, classical, rock, hip hop, afrobeat, electronic, R&B, blues, jazz, and country. Its name is derived from the initials of its defunct parent company, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). RCA Records was fully acquired by Bertelsmann in 1987, making it a part of Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) and became a part of Sony BMG Music Entertainment after the 2004 merger of BMG and Sony; it was acquired by the latter in 2008, after the dissolution of Sony/BMG and the restructuring of Sony Music. RCA Records is the corporate successor of the Victor Talking Machine Company, founded in 1901, making it the second-oldest record label in American history, after sister label Columbia Records, founded in 1889.


title: RCA Records

text: In 1929, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company, then the world's largest manufacturer of phonographs (including the famous "Victrola") and phonograph records. The company then became RCA Victor. In absorbing Victor, RCA acquired the New World rights to the famous Nipper/"His Master's Voice" trademark.


title: RCA Records

text: In 1931, RCA Victor's British affiliate the Gramophone Company merged with the Columbia Graphophone Company to form EMI. This gave RCA head David Sarnoff a seat on the EMI board.


title: RCA Records

text: In September 1931, RCA Victor introduced the first 33 rpm records sold to the public, calling them "Program Transcriptions". These used a shallower and more closely spaced implementation of the large "standard groove" found on contemporary 78 rpm records, rather than the "microgroove" used for post-World War II 33 rpm "LP" (long play) records. The format was a commercial failure, partly because the new Victrolas with two-speed turntables designed to play these records were exorbitantly priced, the least expensive model retailing for $395.00 in the depths of the Great Depression. The format was abandoned by 1933, and two-speed turntables were no longer offered, but some Program Transcriptions lingered in the Victor record catalog until the end of the 1930s.


title: RCA Records

text: During the early part of the Depression, RCA Victor made a number of attempts to create a successful cheap label to compete with the "dime store labels" (Perfect, Oriole, Banner, Melotone, etc.). The first was the short-lived "Timely Tunes" label in 1931 sold at Montgomery Ward. Bluebird Records was created in 1932 as a sub-label of RCA Victor. It was originally an 8-inch record with a dark blue label, alongside an 8-inch Electradisk label (sold at Woolworth's). Neither were a success. In 1933, RCA Victor reintroduced Bluebird and Electradisk as a standard 10-inch label (Bluebird's label was redesigned, and it became known as the 'buff' label). Another cheap label, Sunrise, was produced (although nobody seems to know for whom it was produced, as Sunrise records are exceptionally rare today). The same musical couplings were issued on all three labels and the Bluebird label still survives today, eight decades after Electradisk and Sunrise were discontinued. RCA Victor also produced records for Montgomery Ward label during the 1930s.


title: RCA Records

text: Besides manufacturing its own records, RCA's Custom Record Division was the leading record manufacturer for independent labels. RCA's Midwestern plant in Indianapolis, at 501 North LaSalle Street (the site is now part of a Demolition and Blight Reduction Project). The Custom Division notably pressed many record compilations for The Reader's Digest Association.


title: RCA Records

text: RCA sold its interest in EMI in 1938, but EMI continued to distribute RCA Victor recordings in the UK and its territories on the HMV label until the late 1950s. RCA also manufactured and distributed HMV recordings on the RCA Victor and custom HMV labels in North America.


title: RCA Records

text: During World War II, ties between RCA Victor and its Japanese affiliate Victor Company of Japan (Nippon Victor) were severed. JVC's record company is known today as Victor Entertainment and still retains the Nipper/His Master's Voice trademark for use in Japan.


title: RCA Records

text: From 1942 to 1944, RCA Victor was seriously impacted by the American Federation of Musicians recording ban. Virtually all union musicians in the US and Canada were forbidden from making recordings during the period. One of the few exceptions was the eventual release of recorded radio broadcast performances from the NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscanini. However, RCA Victor lost the Philadelphia Orchestra during this period; the orchestra's contract with RCA Victor expired during the strike and when Columbia Records settled with the union before RCA, Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphians signed a new contract with Columbia and began recording in 1944. Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra would not return to RCA until 1968.


title: RCA Records

text: In the spring of 1946, "RCA Victor" replaced "Victor" on labels for shellac 78 rpm singles. In 1949, RCA Victor introduced the 7-inch 45 rpm micro-grooved vinylite record, marketed simply as the "45". The new format, which had been under development for several years, was originally intended to replace 78 rpm discs. By the time RCA Victor belatedly unveiled it, the 45 was now competing with the 10-inch and 12-inch 33 rpm microgroove vinyl "LP" (Long Play) discs introduced by arch-rival Columbia Records in the early summer of 1948. In heavy promotion, RCA Victor sold compact, inexpensive add-on and stand-alone units that played the 45 rpm format exclusively. At first, RCA Victor's 45s were issued on colored vinyl according to the musical genre: contemporary pop music on black vinyl (47-XXXX series), prestigious Broadway musicals and operettas on "midnight blue" vinyl (52-xxxx series), classical music on red vinyl (49-xxxx series), country and polka on green (48-xxxx series), children's fare on yellow (also in the 47-xxxx series), rhythm and blues on orange or cerise (50-xxxx series), and international on light blue (51-xxxx series). This array of colors complicated the production process, and the practice was soon discontinued, all records becoming black. Yellow and red held on until about 1952. The first 45 rpm record manufactured was "PeeWee the Piccolo" RCA Victor 47-0147 pressed December 7, 1948 at the Sherman Drive plant in Indianapolis. The use of vinyl, which was much more expensive than the gritty shellac compound normally used for 78s, was actually cheaper because of the smaller diameter and greatly reduced bulk of the new records, which required very little raw material. The smaller, lightweight discs were also more economical to store and ship.


title: RCA Records

text: RCA Victor marketed the 45 as a direct replacement for 10-inch and 12-inch 78 rpm records, which typically played for about three and four minutes per side respectively. The company also released some "extended play" (EP) 45s with playing times up to 7 minutes per side, primarily for some vocal collections and light classical selections, as typified by an Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra disc featuring Tchaikovsky's "Marche Slave" and Ketèlbey's "In a Persian Market". Boxed sets of four to six 45s were issued, each set providing about the same amount of music as one LP. (An extreme case of these boxed sets was the complete recording of the opera "Carmen", featuring Risë Stevens and conducted by Fritz Reiner, which consisted of sixteen 45 rpm discs.) In the case of operas, symphonies and other complete recordings of classical music, there was an interruption every four minutes as one record side ended and another was started up. These disruptive "side breaks", a nuisance long familiar to listeners of album sets of classical and operatic 78 rpm records, were minimized by an extremely fast automatic record-changing mechanism that was a core feature of RCA Victor's 45 players. Thanks in large degree to RCA Victor's massive five million dollar advertising campaign, the 45 became the preferred speed for pop music singles, overtaking U.S. sales of the same material on 78s by 1954, but Columbia's LP prevailed as the format for classical music and convenient one-disc "album" collections of eight or more pop songs. RCA Victor finally bowed to the inevitable and announced its intention to issue LPs in January 1950.


title: RCA Records

text: Finally acknowledging the success of Columbia's LP format and fearful of losing further market share, RCA Victor began issuing LPs itself. Among the first RCA Victor LPs released in 1950 was a performance of "Gaîté Parisienne" by Jacques Offenbach, played by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra, which had actually been recorded in Boston's Symphony Hall on June 20, 1947; it was given the catalogue number LM-1001. Non-classical albums were issued with the prefix "LPM". When RCA Victor later issued classical stereo albums (in 1958), they used the prefix "LSC". Non-classical stereo albums were issued with the prefix "LSP". RCA utilized these catalog prefixes until 1973.


title: RCA Records

text: The edition of "Billboard" magazine dated April 11, 1953, announced a new RCA Victor subsidiary label, its first to use independent distribution and was nameless when it was first revealed. For the lack of any better designation, Billboard chose to refer to the new, unnamed label in the story as Label "X"; the new label began to hire staffers and decide on a direction, and the name stuck until 1955. RCA Victor officially announced the formation of label "X" on April 20, 1953. Groove was an R&B specialty label founded in 1954 and folded into Vik in 1957; the Vik label was discontinued the following year.


title: RCA Records

text: From the label's beginnings in 1902, and intensifying through the 1940s and 1950s, RCA Victor was in direct competition with Columbia Records. A number of recordings were made with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscanini; sometimes RCA Victor utilized recordings of broadcast concerts (Toscanini had been recording for the label since the days of acoustic recordings, and RCA Victor had been recording the NBC Symphony since its creation in 1937). After Toscanini retired in the spring of 1954, the NBC Symphony was reorganized later that year as the Symphony of the Air. The orchestra, while no longer connected to NBC, continued to record for RCA Victor, as well as other labels, usually conducted by Leopold Stokowski. RCA Victor also released a number of recordings with the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra, which was usually drawn from either Philadelphia or New York musicians, as well as members of the Symphony of the Air, and the orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera. By the late 1950s, RCA Victor had fewer high prestige orchestras under contract than Columbia had: RCA Victor recorded the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Pops, whereas Columbia had the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under contracts.


title: RCA Records

text: On October 6, 1953, RCA Victor held experimental stereophonic sessions in New York City's Manhattan Center with Leopold Stokowski conducting a group of New York City musicians in performances of George Enescu's "Roumanian Rhapsody No. 1" and the waltz from Tchaikovsky's opera "Eugene Onegin". There were additional stereo tests in December, again in the Manhattan Center, this time with Pierre Monteux conducting members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In February 1954, RCA Victor made its first commercial stereophonic recordings, taping the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Charles Münch, in a performance of "The Damnation of Faust" by Hector Berlioz. This began a practice of simultaneously recording orchestras with both stereophonic and monaural equipment. Other early stereo recordings were made of Toscanini's final NBC concerts (never officially issued) and Guido Cantelli respectively, with the NBC Symphony Orchestra; the Boston Pops Orchestra under Arthur Fiedler; and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Fritz Reiner. Initially, RCA used RT-21 quarter-inch tape recorders (which ran at 30 inches per second), wired to mono mixers, with Neumann U-47 cardioid and M-49/50 omnidirectional microphones. Then they switched to an Ampex 300–3 one-half inch machine, running at 15 inches per second (which was later increased to 30 inches per second). These recordings were initially issued in 1955 on special stereophonic reel-to-reel tapes and then, beginning in 1958, on vinyl LPs with the "Living Stereo" logo. RCA has continued to reissue many of these recordings on CD. Another 1953 project for RCA was converting the acoustically superior building Webster Hall into its main East Coast recording studio. RCA operated this studio venue from 1953 to 1968.


title: RCA Records

text: In September 1954, RCA Victor introduced "Gruve-Gard" where the center and edge of a record are thicker


title: RCA Records

text: than the playing area, reducing scuff marks during handling and when stacked on a turntable with an automatic record changer. Most competitors quickly adopted the raised label and edges.


title: RCA Records

text: In 1955, RCA Victor purchased the recording contract of Elvis Presley from Sun Records for the then-astronomical sum of $40,000. Presley became RCA Victor's biggest-selling recording artist. His first record for the label was "Heartbreak Hotel", recorded in January 1956. RCA Victor sold ten million Presley singles during 1956.


title: RCA Records

text: Effective in 1957, EMI/HMV ended its 55-year association with RCA Victor, after EMI's acquisition of Capitol Records in 1955. Capitol then became the main distributor for EMI recordings in the Americas; Decca Records became the manufacturer and distributor for RCA Victor in the United Kingdom, using the RCA lightning bolt logo, instead of the Nipper/His Master's Voice trademark for which EMI held the rights to in the U.K. and Europe.


title: RCA Records

text: RCA Victor issued several spoken word albums in the 1950s and 60s, notably the soundtracks of the films "Richard III", "A Man for All Seasons" and "The Taming of the Shrew", as well as complete versions of the National Theatre of Great Britain stage productions of "Othello" (starring Laurence Olivier) and "Much Ado About Nothing" (starring Maggie Smith, who also played Desdemona in the Olivier "Othello"). None of these albums have appeared on compact disc, but the films of "Richard III", "A Man For All Seasons", "The Taming of the Shrew" and the filmed version of Olivier's "Othello" have all been issued on DVD.


title: RCA Records

text: In 1960, RCA Victor announced the Compact 33 double extended play and singles; these were 7 inch records, which played at 33 1/3 rpm. In January 1961, the Compact 33 discs were released simultaneously with their 45 rpm counterparts. The long-term goal was to phase out the 45 rpm disc, but sales of the new records were poor and by early 1962 the campaign had failed.


title: RCA Records

text: In 1963, RCA Victor introduced Dynagroove which added computer technology to the disc cutting process, ostensibly to improve sound reproduction. Whether or not the complex process was actually an improvement is still debated among audiophiles. RCA quietly discontinued Dynagroove around 1970.


title: RCA Records

text: In September 1965, RCA and Lear Jet Corp. teamed up to release the first stereo 8-track tape music Cartridges (Stereo 8) which were first used in the 1966 line of Ford automobiles and were popular throughout the late 1960s and 1970s. (The initial release comprised 175 titles from RCA Victor and RCA Camden's catalog of artists.)


title: RCA Records

text: In 1968, the RCA Corporation modernized its image with what was then a new futuristic-looking logo (the letters 'RCA' in block, modernized form), replacing the old lightning bolt logo, and the virtual retirement of both the Victor and Nipper/His Master's Voice trademarks. The RCA Victor Division was now known as RCA Records, 'Victor' now restricted to the album covers and labels of RCA's regular popular record releases, while the Nipper/His Master's Voice trademark was seen only on the album covers of Red Seal records. The color of the labels, which had always been black for the popular series (as opposed to the Red Seal line), was changed to a bright orange or yellow (becoming tan briefly later in 1975–76).


title: RCA Records

text: In late 1969, RCA Records introduced a very thin, lightweight vinyl LP known as Dynaflex. This type of pressing claimed to overcome warping and other problems in conventional thicker pressings, but it had a controversial reputation in the industry and was abandoned by the late 1970s.


title: RCA Records

text: In April 1970, RCA Records announced the first quadraphonic 4-channel 8-track tape cartridges ("Quad-8", later called just Q8). RCA began releasing quadraphonic vinyl recordings in the United States in February 1973, in the CD-4 format developed by its former subsidiary, the Victor Company of Japan (JVC), and made commercially practical by Quadracast Systems Inc. (QSI). RCA's trade name became "Quadradisc". The CD-4 format required a special cartridge that had a ±1 db frequency response out to 50 kHz, a CD-4 demodulator which decoded the difference between the front and rear channels from a 30 kHz subcarrier, four separate amplifier channels, and four separate speakers for the left and right front and left and right rear. Both the CD-4 Quadradisc and Quad-8 tape cartridge systems were true discrete 4–4–4 quadraphonic systems. Columbia Records introduced a quadraphonic matrix system, SQ, which required a decoder, 4-channel amplifier and the four speakers. The SQ system was referred to as a 4–2–4 matrix system. The Warner Music Group labels also adopted Quadradisc, but the format never became popular, and both RCA and Columbia abandoned quadraphonic recording by 1976; some of the RCA sessions were later remastered for (same as Peter Scheiber's original matrix system) and released on CD. This included Charles Gerhardt's acclaimed series of RCA Red Seal albums devoted to classic film scores by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Alfred Newman, Dimitri Tiomkin, Max Steiner, Franz Waxman, and others, performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra and recorded in London's Kingsway Hall.


title: RCA Records

text: In order to publish music in Japan, RCA collaborated with the Victor Company of Japan's publishing wing Victor Musical Industries Inc. in 1975 to found Japanese record label RVC.


title: RCA Records

text: Beginning in late 1976, the RCA Corporation revived the Nipper/His Master's Voice trademark. RCA Records reinstated Nipper to most (Victor, Victrola, Red Seal and Special Products) record labels (in addition to returning to the traditional black label color for popular releases) in countries where RCA held the rights to the Nipper/His Master's Voice trademark. Nipper was once again widely used in RCA newspaper and magazine advertisements as well as store displays and promotional items such as T-shirts, posters, watches, coffee mugs and stuffed toys. The trademark was also painted on RCA delivery and service trucks.


title: RCA Records

text: In 1983, Arista Records owner Bertelsmann sold 50% of Arista to RCA. In 1985, Bertelsmann and RCA Records formed a joint venture called RCA/Ariola International. The following year, RCA Corporation was acquired by General Electric (GE) and it sold its 50% interest in RCA Records to its partner Bertelsmann. The company was renamed BMG Music for Bertelsmann Music Group. BMG revived the old RCA "lightning bolt" logo that was retired in 1968 to differentiate RCA Records from the other RCA divisions, which GE either liquidated, sold, or closed. BMG also revived the "RCA Victor" label for Red Seal, Broadway and soundtrack releases and other musical genres outside of rock, pop and country music. In 1986, Bob Buziak, formerly an artist manager, was appointed president of the label.


title: RCA Records

text: During the mid-1980s, RCA Records operated at a deficit, due in part to "overpriced deals" with pop stars including Kenny Rogers and Diana Ross. In 1986, the label bought back $25 million in unsold albums and lost $35 million during the fiscal year 1987. As a partial corrective, a decentralized style of management which allowed RCA Records to function as a free-standing entrepreneurial business was implemented for 1988. Buziak drastically cut the RCA roster from around 40 acts to 11, and began to rebuild it with a focus on developing artists, including artists acquired through marketing and distribution agreements with Beggars Banquet Records, a British punk rock label, and Jive Records, whose roster included Schooly D, Kool Moe Dee, and DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince.


title: RCA Records

text: By the end of the fiscal year 1988, RCA Records had gross revenue of $236 million in the United States, its most profitable year to date. Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is" sold more than three million albums, and the soundtrack for the film "Dirty Dancing", which cost RCA $200,000 to produce, sold 15.6 million copies in less than two years. Its follow-up, "More Dirty Dancing", composed of song tracks which had been left out of the first album, was produced for $80,000 and went on to sell more than 5.6 million. Among the most successful acts for RCA Records during the 1980s were the Eurythmics, Love and Rockets, Joshua Perahia, Rick Astley, Dolly Parton, Juice Newton, and Bucks Fizz.


title: RCA Records

text: In August 1990 Buziak was replaced by Joe Galante, who had been the president of RCA Records Nashville division. The roster was cut once again and the A&R department was restructured. Along with the launch of BNA Records and the expansion of the urban music division, these initiatives would prove to be positive, but RCA was unsuccessful under Galante, ranking 10th in market share in 1995. Galante returned to head the Nashville division and was replaced in March 1995 by the president of RCA Records Canada, Bob Jamieson. Jamieson overhauled RCA, eliminating a layer of middle management and retooling the label's marketing department. The A&R department was again restructured and the artist roster cut.


title: RCA Records

text: By the close of the decade, RCA Records had undergone what "Billboard" described as a "remarkable turnaround" with the success of artists including Britney Spears, the Dave Matthews Band, Natalie Imbruglia, the Verve Pipe, Robyn, SWV, Christina Aguilera, NSYNC, and Foo Fighters. A distribution deal with Loud Records yielded hit records from urban artists including Big Punisher, Wu-Tang Clan and Mobb Deep.


title: RCA Records

text: In 2002, BMG fully acquired J Records, which it had founded in 2000 as a joint venture with Clive Davis. Davis was then named chairman of RCA Records and J Records under the auspices of a new entity, the RCA Music Group, which included RCA Records, J, and Arista Records. In 2004, Sony and BMG merged their music divisions to create Sony BMG, and in 2007, the RCA Music Group was rebranded as the BMG Label Group. In 2006, Sony BMG merged its former Broadway music and classical labels, including Red Seal and Gold Seal, to Sony Masterworks. Legacy Recordings, Sony Music Entertainment's catalog division, reissues classic albums for RCA.


title: RCA Records

text: In April 2008, former Zomba Label Group president and CEO Barry Weiss was appointed chairman of the BMG Label Group, and Davis was named chief creative officer of Sony BMG worldwide. In October, Sony acquired BMG's 50% ownership and the BMG Label Group was merged with the Jive Label Group to establish the RCA/Jive Label Group. It included RCA, Jive, J, Arista, Polo Grounds, LaFace Records, Volcano Entertainment, Hitz Committee, Battery Records, and the Verity Gospel Music Group.


title: RCA Records

text: The decade marked a period during which RCA Records had notable success in the pop genre, with Christina Aguilera, Kesha, Pink, Kelly Clarkson and Pitbull scoring multiple #1 hits on the "Billboard" Hot 100 charts.


title: RCA Records

text: In May 2011, former Universal Music Group CEO Doug Morris was appointed chairman of Sony Music Entertainment. Focused on A&R, Morris named Peter Edge, president of A&R at RCA and J Records, chairman and CEO of RCA Music Group. Tom Corson was named president and COO. On the seventh of October of that year, the Jive, Arista and J imprints were altogether permanently merged into RCA. As a result, the RCA Music Group was then disbanded and RCA was reinstated as a standalone label under the Sony Music umbrella. Following the shutdown of the three labels, a majority of various artists from the rosters of Jive, Arista and/or J were shifted to release future material under RCA.


title: RCA Records

text: During the first half of the decade, RCA released platinum and multi-platinum records by artists including A$AP Rocky, Cage the Elephant, Chris Brown, Kelly Clarkson, Miley Cyrus, D'Angelo, Dave Matthews Band, Foo Fighters, G-Eazy, Jennifer Hudson, R. Kelly, Kesha, Khalid, Alicia Keys, Kings of Leon, Miguel, Pentatonix, P!nk, Pitbull, Shakira, Sia, Britney Spears, Bryson Tiller, Justin Timberlake, T-Pain, and Tinashe. Since 2012, the label has released music by artists including: Kevin Abstract, A$AP Ferg, Becky G, Bleachers, Brockhampton, Bryson Tiller, Cam, G-Eazy, Childish Gambino, Martin Garrix, H.E.R., Normani, Kaytranada, Khalid, Kygo, Tate McRae, Mark Ronson, Sasha Sloan, Jazmine Sullivan, SZA, ZAYN.


title: RCA Records

text: In 2015, RCA Records reinstated its classic 1968 space-age 'RCA' styled logo after utilizing the old lightning bolt logo since 1987. The lightning bolt logo is still used by RCA's Nashville division.


title: RCA Records

text: John Fleckenstein and Joe Riccitelli were appointed as co-presidents of RCA Records in January 2018. Later that year, RCA named Keith Naftaly president of A&R, and Tunji Balogun executive VP of A&R.


title: RCA Records

text: In addition to releasing successful albums by Bryson Tiller, Alicia Keys, Fousheé' and Pentatonix in 2020, RCA had #1 records with Doja Cat's "Say So" feat. Nicki Minaj; Miley Cyrus' "Plastic Hearts" and Chris Brown & Young Thug's "Go Crazy". Brockhampton's single "Sugar" was certified platinum, and singles by Flo Milli and Latto (formerly known as "Mulatto") were certified gold. Both Doja Cat and Kaytranada received multiple Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist, H.E.R. received her 13th Grammy nomination, and the Strokes album "The New Abnormal" was nominated for Best Rock Album. Koffee signed with RCA just after she became the first woman and the youngest person to win the Reggae Album of the Year Grammy. In June 2020, the label partnered with the Human Rights Campaign to present the 2020 Pride Benefit Concert, a livestream supporting LGBTQ equality in June. RCA artists including Isaac Dunbar, Cam, and Citizen Queen performed. SZA released the single "Good Days" on December 25.


title: RCA Records

text: In January 2021, Mark Pitts was appointed president of RCA Records and John Fleckenstein was named chief operating officer. Jazmine Sullivan's "Heaux Tales" hit #1 on the "Billboard" R&B albums chart. Tate McRae's "You Broke Me First" (stylized as "you broke me first") was quadruple platinum in Ireland, double platinum in Canada, Mexico and New Zealand, and platinum in the US, UK, Australia, Finland, France, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. She was #1 on the "Billboard" emerging artist chart.


title: RCA Records

text: RCA Victor has produced several notable Broadway cast albums, among them the original Broadway recordings of "Brigadoon", "Paint Your Wagon", the Mary Martin "Peter Pan", "Damn Yankees", "Hello, Dolly!", "Oliver!", and "Fiddler on the Roof". RCA has also recorded and released recordings of revival stagings of musicals. These include the musical productions staged at Lincoln Center, such as the 1966 revivals of "Show Boat" and "Annie Get Your Gun", the 1987 revival of "Anything Goes" and the 1998 Broadway revivals of "Cabaret" and "The Sound of Music". "Call Me Madam" was recorded by RCA Victor with all of its original cast except for its star Ethel Merman, who, due to contractual obligations, could not be released from her American Decca Records contract. She was replaced on the RCA Victor album by Dinah Shore. RCA Victor was also responsible for the film soundtrack albums of "Damn Yankees", "South Pacific", "Bye Bye Birdie", "Half a Sixpence", and "The Sound of Music". The album made from the 1965 hit Julie Andrews film was (and is) one of the best selling soundtracks of all time. The film soundtrack of "Oliver!", made by Colgems Records, was distributed by RCA, which had released the Broadway cast album. RCA Victor also released the original American cast album of "Hair".


title: RCA Records

text: Similarly, RCA Victor also made several studio cast recording albums, including a Lerner and Loewe series with Jan Peerce, Jane Powell, and Robert Merrill, as well as a 1963 album of excerpts from George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess", with its 1952 revival leads, Leontyne Price and William Warfield, but a different supporting cast. They also issued two studio cast versions of "Show Boat", one with Robert Merrill, Patrice Munsel, and Rise Stevens in 1956, and the other with Howard Keel, Anne Jeffreys, and Gogi Grant in 1958. Unfortunately, contrary to the way the show is written, both of these "Show Boat" albums featured all-white casts, reflecting the era of racial segregation.


title: RCA Records

text: In 2006, Sony BMG merged its Broadway music labels, including RCA Victor, to the new Masterworks Broadway Records. All of these recordings are now on Masterworks Broadway Records, which has remastered and reissued many of these albums.


title: RCA Records

text: After Kenny Rogers left RCA Records in 1987, he accused the label of trying to ruin his career. Rogers had signed to RCA in 1982 for an advance sum of $20 million (the largest deal ever in country music up to that time) when Bob Summer was head of the label.


title: RCA Records

text: In the summer of 2007, Kelly Clarkson and Clive Davis, then head of Sony BMG, feuded publicly regarding the direction of her album "My December", the follow-up to Clarkson's multi-platinum album, "Breakaway". Clarkson wrote the songs on "My December", "showcasing her own songwriting on darker, edgier rock-oriented fare", and Davis insisted Clarkson work with hired hitmakers, as she had previously, on "polished, radio-friendly songs". Clarkson refused to change the album, and it was released in June 2007. It has since been certified platinum.


title: RCA Records

text: In November 2010, Avril Lavigne stated that the long delay of her fourth album, "Goodbye Lullaby", was due to "a bunch of bureaucratic BS" related to RCA. The album was ultimately released in March 2011. In October 2011, Lavigne confirmed that she had left RCA and signed with sister label Epic Records.


title: RCA Records

text: RCA ignored allegations of sexual misconduct by R. Kelly, which included running a violent cult, wherein he held teenage individuals hostage in exchange for sexual favors. Kelly continued to release music for RCA through 2018, when pressure from the Mute R. Kelly campaign mounted against him. In January 2019, following the broadcast of Lifetime's documentary "Surviving R. Kelly", his contract was terminated by RCA.


title: RCA Records

text: In the early 1920s, Victor was slow about getting deeply involved in recording and marketing black jazz and vocal blues. By the mid-to-late 1920s, Victor had signed Jelly Roll Morton, Bennie Moten, Duke Ellington and other black bands, and was becoming very competitive with Columbia and Brunswick, even starting their own V-38000 "Hot Dance" series that was marketed to all Victor dealers. They also had a V-38500 "race" (race records) series, a 23000 'hot dance' continuation of the V-38000 series, as well as a 23200 'Race' series with blues, gospel and some hard jazz. However, throughout the 1930s, RCA Victor's involvement in jazz and blues slowed down and by the time of the musicians' strike and the end of the war, Victor was neglecting the R&B (race) scene, which is one of the reasons so many independent companies sprang up so successfully.


title: RCA Records

text: In the early 1960s, RCA Victor demolished its Camden warehouse. This warehouse reportedly held four floors' worth of Victor's catalog dating back to 1902 and vault masters (most of them were pre-tape wax and metal discs), test pressings, lacquer discs, matrix ledgers, and rehearsal recordings. The company retained some of the more important masters (such as those by Enrico Caruso, Arturo Toscanini, George Gershwin and Jimmie Rodgers; why the masters of Sergei Rachmaninoff apparently weren't saved is a mystery), but it is uncertain just how many others were saved or lost. A few days before the demolition took place, some collectors from the US and Europe were allowed to go through the warehouse and salvage whatever they could carry with them for their personal collections. Soon afterward, record collectors and RCA Victor officials watched from a nearby bridge as the warehouse was dynamited, with many studio masters still intact in the building. The remnants were bulldozed into the Delaware River and a pier was built on top of them. In 1973, to celebrate the centenary of Rachmaninoff's birth, RCA decided to reissue his complete recordings on LP; RCA was forced to go to collectors for copies of certain records because their archives were incomplete, as documented in a "Time" magazine article.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: The Dragon Prince, also known as The Dragon Prince: Mystery of Aaravos after the release of season 4, is a fantasy computer-animated television series created for Netflix by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond, produced by Wonderstorm and animated by Bardel Entertainment. The series follows the story of the half-brother princes Callum and Ezran and the moonshadow elf Rayla, who, as they take care of the infant dragon Prince Azymondias, must end the thousand-year-old conflict between the human kingdoms and the mystical creatures of the magical realm of Xadia, where all seven primal sources of magic, both light and dark, come from.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: The series has earned critical acclaim for its story, themes, vocal performances, animation, and humor. The first season premiered on September 14, 2018. Season 2 followed on February 15, 2019, and season 3 on November 22, 2019. Season 4 premiered on November 3, 2022, following a three-year hiatus. The show has been renewed for three additional seasons, each with nine episodes. A video game set in the same world as the series is in development.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: The series is set in a fantasy world on the continent of Xadia, which is rich in magic derived from six primal sources: the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Earth, the Sky, and the Ocean. Centuries ago, the dragons, elves, and humans of Xadia lived in peace. However, the humans, being unable to utilize magic naturally, began to use dark magic, which is fueled by the life essence of magical creatures. As a consequence, they were driven away to the west, and the continent was split in two by a massive river of lava.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: One millennium later, the human King Harrow of Katolis and his advisor, the dark mage Viren, have killed the dragon king, Avizandum, and supposedly destroyed his heir's egg. In retaliation, elf assassins attempt to kill Harrow and his son, Ezran. Ezran, his half-brother Callum, and the young Moonshadow Elf assassin Rayla discover that the remaining sky dragon's egg was not destroyed after all; they undertake a dangerous mission to return the egg to its mother, Queen Xubeia, in Xadia. Viren seizes power after King Harrow's assassination and sends his children Claudia and Soren to kill the princes and recover the egg. At the end of the first season, the egg hatches into the titular character, Prince Azymondias, nicknamed Zym.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: In the second season, Viren attempts to rally the other human kingdoms to war against Xadia; he also makes a secret alliance with the mysterious, imprisoned Startouch Elf and archmage Aaravos, who reveals himself and communicates from his prison initially via a mirror that resided in the home cavern of the previous King of the Sky Dragons, Zym's father, and later via a caterpillar-like creature. Meanwhile, Callum becomes the first human to directly access primal magic, connecting with the Sky Arcanum. By the end of Season 2, Viren is imprisoned for treason for having illicitly used Harrow's seal, and for abusing his powers of dark magic. Ezran learns of his father's death and returns to Katolis to claim the throne.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: In the third season, Ezran is manipulated into abdicating the throne amid pressure for war, and he rejoins Callum and Rayla to return Zym to his dying mother at her home, the Storm Spire. Viren, restored to power, leads the human armies against Xadia, amassing even more dark magic with the help of Aaravos. Soren defects to resist his father's evil goals. Viren's army is defeated by the elves and their allies. Rayla throws herself and Viren from the summit of the Spire, and Callum uses Sky magic to save Rayla. Zym is returned to his mother. Claudia revives Viren using dark magic, and Aaravos's caterpillar enters metamorphosis.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: In the fourth season, which takes place two years later, relationships between Xadia and the human realms have generally improved, but resentments and doubts still linger. Rayla returns from her fruitless search for Viren and her parents, but just when things seem to improve, Aaravos sets his release in motion using Viren and Claudia as his pawns. The Dragon Queen reveals that, when Aaravos was imprisoned, the keys to his prison were divided among the Archdragons, and included Avizandum's mirror (which had been stolen along with Zym's egg by Viren). Ezran, Callum, Rayla and Soren go on a quest to find the missing clues, seeking the first from Rex Igneous, the Archdragon of the Earth.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: The Elves are divided into six races based on the six primal elements- Moonshadow Elves, Skywing Elves, Sunfire Elves, Earthblood Elves,Tidebound Elves and almighty Startouch Elves.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: The series was first announced on July 10, 2018. It was co-created by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond. Ehasz was the head writer and co-executive producer of the animated series "", and a longtime writer and story editor for "Futurama", while Richmond co-directed the video game "". Giancarlo Volpe, a former director for "Avatar", is an executive producer.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: "The Dragon Prince" is produced by Wonderstorm, a multimedia production studio co-founded in 2017, by Ehasz, Richmond, and Justin Santistevan to work both on "The Dragon Prince" and a related video game, and animated by Canadian studio Bardel Entertainment. In November 2019, several female former employees of Riot Games and Wonderstorm accused Ehasz of asking his female employees to take care of his children without permission and not taking women's creative ideas seriously. Although one anonymous accuser speculated that this could affect the show's continuation, Netflix renewed the show and all 7 seasons of the saga will be produced.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: "The Dragon Prince" is created using three-dimensional computer animation. A reduced frame rate was applied to the first season to offset "floatiness"; the frame rate was adjusted for the second season in response to fan feedback. Backgrounds are done by a mix of 3D-modeling and hand-painting.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: The ending of season 2 was changed from the original plan in order to stay true to what the characters would choose. According to Ehasz, one of the creative team's fundamental goals regarding "The Dragon Prince" is "to portray a fantasy world that feels more diverse and representative than fantasy worlds and stories we’ve seen in the past."


title: The Dragon Prince

text: "The Dragon Prince" is available on the streaming service Netflix, in all territories where the streaming service is available. The first season was released on September 14, 2018. Episodes were released simultaneously, as opposed to a serialized format, to encourage binge-watching, a format which has been successful for other Netflix original series.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: A trailer was released in July 2018 at the San Diego Comic-Con. The first season premiered in September 2018. A second season, announced in October 2018, was released on February 15, 2019. The third season was released on November 22, 2019. At the virtual ComicCon@Home 2020 panel "Zoom into Xadia", the continuation of the show over four more seasons was announced. Season four was released on November 3, 2022.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: Before the release of the show's first season, during the San Diego Comic-Con in July 2018, it was revealed that the series would contain LGBT characters in it; however, no details or characters were provided to avoid spoilers. On the day of the first season's release, Wonderstorm issued a statement regarding the show's handling of diversity, where co-creators Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond described the importance of telling a story with diverse characters in it, which is something they are passionate about. To achieve their goal of creating a diverse world and characters, it was decided that they would accomplish this through a variety of methods, with some examples singled out being the inclusion of racial diversity, the portrayal of non-typical family structures, as well as people with disabilities. Alongside these forms of representation, the representation of LGBT characters was also singled out.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: Regarding "The Dragon Prince"s diverse representation, it was stated that with some characters their arcs would "play out in ways that clearly demonstrate their difference or representation right away", but that with other characters their status as minorities would be "part of their identity, but not yet a part of their plot or storyline". Following the release of season 1, it was theorized that an unnamed elf that appears in the end credits illustrations of two episodes—dubbed "Tinker" by fans—was Runaan's boyfriend.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: The second season of "The Dragon Prince" included the show's first instance of LGBT representation. The Queens of Duren—Annika and Neha—appear in flashbacks set prior to the show's beginning and are depicted as a couple, sharing a kiss on-screen; they appear in two out of nine episodes. "Vice" noted how the series' creators have "acknowledged their commitment to making sure [the show] doesn’t use the "bury your gays" trope.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: Despite this statement, in a pre-release review of the season, Michal Schick of "Hypable" discussed how the show's representation of these characters would likely cause debate, given that they can be viewed as falling under the "Bury your gays" trope. While Renaldo Matadeen of Comic Book Resources also acknowledged how the depiction of the Queens of Duren can fall under the "bury your gays" trope—also acknowledging fan complaints regarding this—he still praised the show's depiction of an openly lesbian couple. Similarly, "The Mary Sue"s Caroline Cao argued that while their depiction adheres to the "bury your gay" trope, there are still positives to be found within these characters. Heather Hogan of "Autostraddle" also expressed mixed feelings towards the characters, acknowledging the characters as having positive attributes, but lamenting them already being dead by the time the story begins.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: Following the second season's release and the show's future in terms of LGBT representation, Ehasz stated that there are more characters—including main characters—that are "non-straight". Regarding any future LGBT relationships presented in the series, Ehasz stated that they often let the characters lead them to where they will go next, including any potential relationships that might occur. For this reason, he described revealing a character to be LGBTQ+ as "challenging", as they do not want to give the impression to the audience that these characters will go on to be in a same-sex relationship, but also acknowledged that LGBT characters and relationships are underrepresented in media. Both Ehasz and Richmond stated that under the right circumstances, and with enough time to tell the story, they would like to explore their queer characters more and have their "identities manifest in relationships and in the story"


title: The Dragon Prince

text: The third season introduces Ethari, who is Runaan's husband. This season also introduces Kazi, who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, but this is only revealed outside of the story through the show's Twitter account. According to lead writer Devon Giehl, the writers intended there to be romantic interest between Amaya and Janai that starts at the end of season 3, and confirmed that both characters are lesbian who like each other.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: In a pre-release review of season 3, "Inverse"s Jake Kleinman criticized the show's LGBTQ+ representation, arguing that despite its initial promise, "The Dragon Prince" has never truly delivered on said promise. He criticized how the first season lacked any on-screen representation, while in season 2 the Queens of Duren only appear in flashbacks and are killed off. While Kleinman viewed the representation of Ethari and Runaan as an improvement, given that both characters are still alive by the end of the season, he found fault with Ethari's minimal role in the story.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 100% of 11 critics gave the first season a positive review; the average rating is 8.2 out of 10. 100% of six critics gave the second season a positive review; the average rating is 8.57 out of 10. 100% of five critics gave the third season a positive review; the average rating is 9 out of 10.


title: The Dragon Prince

text: In an advance review of the first episode, IGN's Aaron Prune praised the series for "comfortably exploring dark story elements while giving audiences an assortment of lovable characters to engage with" and described it as a "worthwhile animated series for audiences of all ages." Reviewing the first three episodes, Alex Barasch of "Slate" was also positive towards the series, saying that despite the "slightly shaky animation and some markedly shakier accents", fans of fantasy or "" will like it. Barasch especially praised the show's inclusivity—such as King Harrow and Ezran, who are both black—and Harrow's relationship with Viren, which he described as "most compelling aspects of the show". Also reviewing the first three episodes, Gavia Baker-Whitelaw of "The Daily Dot" similarly reacted positively to the show's racial inclusion, writing that it "combines goofy humor with a solid basis for longterm storytelling and character development, the character designs show a deep affection for the genre". However, she criticized Rayla's accent as "the worst part of the show", along with the scarcity of female characters. Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media described the series as a "captivating fantasy tale" with positive themes and broad appeal. She also argued it was a "beautifully rendered epic animated fantasy", noted that characters kiss, said that the series is "brimming with mysticism, action, and suspense", and said it has similarities to "" and its spinoff sequel "Avatar: The Legend of Korra".


title: The Dragon Prince

text: Concurrently with the series, Wonderstorm is developing a video game based on the series and expanding on its plot. The game will be a combat-based multiplayer game, but not an MMO. Players will be able to play as characters from the series. No information about supported platforms or release dates has been made available yet.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference Pacific Division. The Kings are the oldest team in the NBA, and the first and only team in the major professional North American sports leagues located in Sacramento. The team plays its home games at the Golden 1 Center. Their best seasons to date in the city were in the early 2000s, including a very successful 2001–02 season when they had the best record in the NBA at 61–21 (a winning percentage of ).


title: Sacramento Kings

text: The franchise began with the Rochester Seagrams (a semi-professional team) from Rochester, New York, that formed in 1923 and hosted a number of teams there over the next 20 years. They joined the National Basketball League in 1945 as the renamed Rochester Royals, winning that league's championship in their first season, 1945–46. They later jumped with three other NBL teams to the Basketball Association of America, forerunner of the NBA, in 1948. As the Royals, the team was often successful on the court, winning the NBA championship in 1951. The team, however, found it increasingly difficult to turn a profit in the comparatively small market of Rochester and relocated to Cincinnati in , becoming the Cincinnati Royals.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: In 1972, the team relocated again, this time to Kansas City, Missouri, and renamed the Kansas City–Omaha Kings because it initially split its home games between Kansas City and Omaha, Nebraska; the nickname was changed to avoid confusion with the baseball team dubbed the Kansas City Royals. After three seasons, the team truncated to Kansas City Kings, but continued to play several home games per season in Omaha, through March 1978.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: The franchise again failed to find success in its market and moved after the 1984–85 season to Sacramento, where they presently reside. Since 2006, the Kings have had sixteen consecutive losing seasons, the most in NBA history. They also currently have the longest active postseason drought in the four major North American sports.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: The basis of the purely-professional Royals team that came into existence in 1945, after two decades of sponsored 'semi-professional' team, Seagram was the team's main sponsor and received the bulk of what monies were made. One of the team's early stars was Lester Harrison, a local high school star of some publicity before joining the team. Harrison later became the team's captain, coach, manager, and chief scout over the next two decades. Among visitors to Rochester to play the team were the Original Celtics, the New York Rens, and the Harlem Globetrotters.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: With news that World War II was approaching its end, the National Basketball League (NBL) announced that it was expanding, and Harrison was approached for interest in a franchise. While the sponsored Seagrams balked at additional expenses involved, Harrison and his lawyer brother Jack jumped at the chance. They pooled money to meet the steep entry fee of $25,000 dollars and were granted an NBL franchise. Their team pushed out the Seagrams locally at their facility, smallish Edgerton Park Arena.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: The best players were the returning Navy and Army players now being released from the war. There was no draft for the league in the selection of new players. So, Harrison was able to scoop up several name stars for his new team, among them Bob Davies, Red Holzman and William "Fuzzy" Levane, as well as NBL free agents like George Glamack and Al Cervi. The result was a strong league champion in their first season of existence as the Royals during the 1945–46 season.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: The team had two more seasons of success during their NBL years, which permitted the team to play non-league opponents. During all three years, 1945–1948, the team played over 300 total games, hosting most of them.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: The Royals defected to the NBL's rival, the Basketball Association of America (BAA), in 1948 along with the Fort Wayne Pistons, Minneapolis Lakers, and Indianapolis (Kautskys) Jets. A year later, the BAA absorbed the remaining NBL teams to become the National Basketball Association (NBA).


title: Sacramento Kings

text: The move to the BAA took away Rochester's profitable exhibition schedule and placed it in the same Western Division as the Minneapolis Lakers. Of the two best teams in professional basketball, only one of them could play in the league finals from 1949 to 1954. Minneapolis, with George Mikan, was almost always better during playoffs than the Royals. With their smallish arena and now-limited schedule, the Royals became less profitable even as the team finished no lower than second in its division in both the NBL and BAA/NBA from 1945 to 1954.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: The Royals won the NBA title in 1951 by defeating the New York Knicks 4–3. It is the only NBA championship in the franchise's history. The title, however, did not translate into profit for the Royals. The roster turned over in 1955, except for star guard Bobby Wanzer, who soon became the team's new coach. The team moved to the larger Rochester War Memorial in 1955. The NBA even agreed to host their All-Star Game there in 1956. But the Royals were now a losing team filled with rookies, and did not turn a profit. Meanwhile, the NBA was putting pressure on Harrison to sell or relocate his team to a larger city. With this in mind, the 1956–57 season was the Royals' last in Rochester.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: The Royals' stay in Rochester featured the services of nine future members of the Basketball Hall of Fame: Al Cervi, Bob Davies, Alex Hannum, Lester Harrison, Red Holzman, Arnie Risen, Maurice Stokes, Jack Twyman, Bobby Wanzer, while others proved prominent in other fields, such as Pro Football Hall of Fame member Otto Graham, Hollywood Walk of Famer Chuck Connors, and Jack McMahon.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: In April 1957, the Harrison brothers moved the Royals to Cincinnati, a city that was then trying to obtain an NBA expansion franchise. This move followed a well-received regular-season game played at Cincinnati Gardens on February 1, 1957. The change of venue had been said to have been partly suggested by Jack Twyman and Dave Piontek, who were two of several roster players on the new Royals from that area. Cincinnati, which had a strong college basketball fanbase then, and no NFL franchise to compete with (until the Bengals joined in 1970 after two seasons in the AFL), was deemed the best choice for the Harrisons, who also considered other cities. The Royals name continued to fit in Cincinnati, often known as the "Queen City".


title: Sacramento Kings

text: During the team's first NBA draft in Cincinnati, the team acquired Clyde Lovellette and guard George King. They teamed with the 1–2 punch of Maurice Stokes and Twyman to produce a budding contender in the team's very first season in the Queen City. But injuries and the loss of star guard Si Green, the #1 overall pick of the 1956 NBA draft, to military service dropped the team into a tie for second place in the NBA Western Division during the 1957–58 season's second half.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: In the season's finale, All-Pro star Maurice Stokes struck his head when he fell after pursuing a rebound. He shook off the effects of the fall, even as he had briefly been unconscious. After Game One in the playoffs three days later, Stokes' head injury was greatly aggravated by airplane cabin pressure during the flight back to Cincinnati for Game Two. He suffered a seizure and was permanently hospitalized, a tragedy that greatly shook the team. Stokes, a tremendous talent who could play center, forward and guard, was 2nd in the NBA in rebounds and 3rd in assists, a double-feat only Wilt Chamberlain has matched for a full season. The impact of losing Stokes was such that the team nearly folded. Six of the team's shaken players simply retired on the spot.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: Fellow All-Star Twyman rose to All-Pro level over the next two seasons for Cincinnati, even as the team posted two 19-win seasons. The 1958–59 Cincinnati team featured five rookies, with Lovellette, King and other key players having left the team in the wake of Stokes' tragic injury. The Harrisons, wanting out at this point, sold to a makeshift local group, headed by Thomas Woods, Cincinnati Gardens management, and a number of local businessmen.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: Jack Twyman came to the aid of his teammate, and even legally adopted Stokes. Raising funds for Stokes' medical treatment, Twyman helped him until his death in April 1970. The 1973 feature film "Maurie", which co-starred actors Bernie Casey and Bo Svenson, dramatized their story.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: Shooting often for the beleaguered team, Twyman was the second NBA player to ever average 30 points per game for an NBA season. Twyman and Stokes were later named Hall of Famers.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: In 1960, the team was able to land local superstar Oscar Robertson. Robertson led a team that included Twyman, Wayne Embry, Bob Boozer, Bucky Bockhorn, Tom Hawkins and Adrian Smith over the next three seasons. The Royals reversed their fortunes with Robertson and rose to title contender. An ownership dispute in early 1963 scuttled the team's playoff chances when new owner Louis Jacobs booked a circus for Cincinnati Gardens for the week of the playoff series versus the champion Boston Celtics. The Royals' home games were at Xavier University's Schmidt Field House.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: In late 1963, another local superstar, Jerry Lucas, joined the team. The Royals rose to the second-best record in the NBA. From 1963 to 1966, the Royals contended strongly against Boston and the Philadelphia 76ers, but won no titles. In the 1964 NBA draft the Royals drafted rookies George Wilson, Bill Chmielewski, Steve Courtin (later traded to 76ers), and Happy Hairston. The team's star players throughout the 1960s were Oscar Robertson and Jerry Lucas. Robertson met with individual success, averaging a triple-double in 1961–62 and winning the Most Valuable Player award in 1964. Robertson was a league-leading scorer and passer each season. Lucas was Rookie Of the Year in 1964, led the league in shooting, and later averaged 20 rebounds per game over four seasons. Both were All-NBA First Team selections multiple times. The team failed to keep some promising players, though, and played in the tough NBA East division, dominated by the Boston Celtics, even as a Baltimore team played in the West Division for three years, denying the team likely visits to the NBA Finals.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: During the 1966–67 season, the Royals began playing some of their home games in neutral sites such as Cleveland (until the Cavaliers began play in 1970), Dayton and Columbus. This did wound their local fan base in Cincinnati, though, and fortunes for the team continued to steadily decline. That year, they would host the 1966 NBA All-Star Game, with Smith scoring 24 points to be named All-Star MVP. As of 2021, it is the last time that the franchise has hosted an All-Star Game. In the summer of 1968, Owner Louis Jacobs died and ownership went to his sons Jeremy and Max Jacobs.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: New coach Bob Cousy traded Lucas in 1969. Robertson was traded to Milwaukee in 1970, where he immediately won an NBA title. Both transactions were unpopular with the fan base, resulting in a home attendance decline and eventually the franchise's move to Kansas City which was announced on March 14, 1972. The NBA Board of Governors voted 16–1 to permit the transfer nine days later on March 23. Before a crowd of 4,022, the Royals defeated the Baltimore Bullets 132–114 in its final home game at Cincinnati Gardens the following night on March 24. The team represented Cincinnati for one last time in a 135–122 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers witnessed by 10,289 at the Cleveland Arena two nights later on March 26.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: After moving to Kansas City, the Royals renamed themselves the Kings to avoid confusion with the Royals baseball team. Now dubbed the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, the team split its home games between the 7,316-seat Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City and the 9,300-seat Omaha Civic Auditorium.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: The Cincinnati Royals had been looking at Omaha as a market as early as 1968, playing twelve "home games" in the Nebraska city from 1968 to 1971. From 1972 to 1975, the KC–Omaha Kings played a total of 42 regular season contests (but no playoff games) in Omaha. In 1975, the club became simply the Kansas City Kings (moving into the new 16,785-seat Kemper Arena the previous season), but did not abandon Omaha completely, playing several games there through the 1977–78 season. For the next two seasons, they played several home games at St. Louis.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: The team netted a new superstar in point guard Nate Archibald, who led the league in scoring and assists in the 1972–73 season.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: While still in Cincinnati, the team introduced a most unusual uniform design, which placed the player's surname below his number. The design remained intact through the first several seasons of the team's run in Sacramento, even when the shade of blue on the road uniforms was changed from royal blue to powder blue, and the script '"Kansas City"' which adorned the road jerseys was scrubbed after the move in favor of a repeat of the "Kings" script on the home shirts. The Kings' back jersey template was later adopted by the WNBA and the NBA Development League, as well as the NBA during the All-Star Game since 2006.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: The Kings had some decent players throughout. Tom Van Arsdale, the shooting forward, "Jumpin" Johnny Green, and Matt Guokas helped Archibald in the first year in Kansas City. Toby Kimball was a fan favorite. Jimmy Walker teamed with Archibald as the Kings made the playoffs the second year. Sam Lacey, an effective passing center, became one of the most dependable players in the league. Archibald became the first player to lead the league in scoring and assists in the first season in Kansas City. However, the management traded Archibald, and wasted high draft picks. Bob Cousy gave way to Phil Johnson, who was fired midyear in 1977 and replaced by Larry Staverman, a player on the team on two separate occasions when it was in Cincinnati (Staverman coached for a brief time and then resigned in May 1981 to take up the role of team president's assistant for the Cleveland Browns).


title: Sacramento Kings

text: The Kings finally achieved some success in their new home when they hired Cotton Fitzsimmons as coach. Fitzsimmons won the Midwest Division in 1978–79 with rookie point guard Phil Ford, who was NBA Rookie of the Year in 1979. Kansas City was led by shooting guard Otis Birdsong, strong on both offense and defense, all-around shooting forward Scott Wedman, and passing center Sam Lacey, who had a trademark bank shot. They drew an average of 10,789 fans to Kemper Arena that season, the only time during their tenure in KC that average attendance was in five figures (the attendance at the peak was only two-thirds of Kemper's capacity). The Kings later played several home games in St. Louis during the early 1980s to large crowds. Most Kansas City sports fans preferred to spend their entertainment dollar on the Royals, who won the American League West division championship four times in five seasons between 1976 and 1980, and reached the 1980 World Series.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: The Kings made the playoffs in 1979–80 and again in 1980–81, despite finishing the 1980–81 regular season at . The Kings made a run in the 1981 NBA playoffs, reaching the Western Conference finals; these were the franchise's first playoff victories since 1964, and their only ones ever in Kansas City. Ernie Grunfeld played the point in this run in place of an injured Ford, as KC used a slow half-court game to win the first two rounds. Power forward Reggie King had a remarkable series, dominating the opposition. After upsetting the Phoenix Suns by winning Game 7 at Phoenix in the Conference Semifinals and becoming the second NBA road team to do so after leading a series 3–1, they bowed out to the Houston Rockets (also 40–42 in the regular season) in five games in the Conference Finals. Lacey, the last remaining Cincinnati Royal to play for the Kings, could not keep up with Rockets superstar center Moses Malone. (The Kings did not win another playoff series for two decades.)


title: Sacramento Kings

text: However, a series of bad luck incidents prevented the team from building on its success. Cleveland Cavaliers owner Ted Stepien lured Wedman and Birdsong away with big contract offers. In 1979, the roof literally fell in at Kemper Arena because of a severe storm, forcing the team to play most of the 1979–80 season at the much smaller Municipal Auditorium. The ownership group sold the team to Sacramento interests for $11 million. The general manager was fired in a scandal in which he was found to be reusing marked postage stamps. When the Kings rehired Joe Axelson as general manager, they brought back the man who had previously traded Oscar Robertson, Norm Van Lier, Nate Archibald and Jerry Lucas, and used the third pick in the ABA dispersal draft on Ron Boone. Axelson stayed on after the Kings left Kansas City where, in their last game ever, fans wore Joe Axelson masks. Axelson later said he hoped his plane would never touch down in Kansas City.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: Axelson became the first general manager in the history of sports to fail with the same franchise in four cities: Cincinnati, Kansas City, Omaha and Sacramento. He was not fired for good until he rehired coach Phil Johnson, whom he had fired in mid-season in Kansas City ten years before. The Kings also entered this period competing with the Kansas City Comets of the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) for the winter sports dollar, when the Comets were led by marketers—the Leiweke brothers. Their final season in 1984–85 resulted in a record, as fans stayed away from Kemper Arena in droves, with average attendance of 6,410. Long-time ABA and NBA star, Don Buse, played his final professional season for the Kings.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: Ownership began looking for a new home for the team. Poor attendance and lack of sponsorship dollars (the team was third in sports market share by a significant margin behind the NFL's Chiefs (even though they went 14 consecutive seasons without a playoff berth, covering the Kings' entire stay in Kansas City) and MLB's Royals were the main reasons. Also, Kansas City had a much stronger following for the Kansas Jayhawks and Missouri Tigers college basketball teams than they did the NBA's Kings.


title: Sacramento Kings

text: The franchise was sold for $10.5 million on June 8, 1983, to a six-man, Sacramento, California-based investment group led by Joseph Benvenuti who had a 50% interest and real estate developer Gregg Lukenbill who was the managing partner. The new ownership group honored the remaining two years of the Kings' lease with Kemper Arena which expired in June 1985 but also had a five-year option that eventually was never exercised. A $12-million conversion of an 82,000 square-foot warehouse into what would become the first ARCO Arena was announced on October 15, 1984. The transfer of the Kings to Sacramento was officially approved by NBA team owners on April 16, 1985, with the only contingency being the construction of an arena seating more than 16,000.