title: Aida

text: A complete concert version of the opera was given in New York City in 1949. Conducted by Toscanini with Herva Nelli as Aida and Richard Tucker as Radamès, it was televised on the NBC television network. Due to the length of the opera, it was divided into two telecasts, preserved on kinescopes, and later released on video by RCA and Testament. The audio portion of the broadcast, including some remakes in June 1954, was released on LP and CD by RCA Victor. Other notable performances from this period include a 1955 performance conducted by Tullio Serafin with Maria Callas as Aida and Richard Tucker as Radamès and a 1959 performance conducted by Herbert von Karajan with Renata Tebaldi as Aida and Carlo Bergonzi as Radamès.


title: Aida

text: La Scala mounted a lavish new production of "Aida" designed by Franco Zeffirelli for the opening night of its 2006/2007 season. The production starred Violeta Urmana in the title role and Roberto Alagna as Radamès. Alagna subsequently made the headlines when he was booed for his rendition of "Celeste Aida" during the second performance, walked off the stage, and was dismissed from the remainder of the run. The production continued to cause controversy in 2014 when Zeffirelli protested La Scala's rental of the production to the Astana Opera House in Kazakhstan without his permission. According to Zeffirelli, the move had doomed his production to an "infamous and brutal" fate.


title: Aida

text: "Aida" continues to be a staple of the standard operatic repertoire. It is frequently performed in the Verona Arena, and is a staple of its renowned opera festival.


title: Aida

text: 3 flutes (3rd also piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, cimbasso, timpani, triangle, bass drum, cymbals, tam-tam, harp, strings; on-stage banda: 6 Egyptian trumpets ("Aida trumpets"), military band, harp


title: Aida

text: The libretto does not specify a precise time period, so it is difficult to place the opera more specifically than the Old Kingdom. For the first production, Mariette went to great efforts to make the sets and costumes authentic. Considering the consistent artistic styles throughout the 3000-year history of ancient Egypt, a given production does not particularly need to choose a specific time period within the larger frame of ancient Egyptian history.


title: Aida

text: Backstory: The Egyptians have captured and enslaved Aida, an Ethiopian princess. An Egyptian military commander, Radamès, struggles to choose between his love for her and his loyalty to the King of Egypt. To complicate the story further, the King's daughter Amneris is in love with Radamès, although he does not return her feelings.


title: Aida

text: "Scene 1: A hall in the King's palace; through the rear gate the pyramids and temples of Memphis are visible"


title: Aida

text: Ramfis, the high priest of Egypt, tells Radamès, the young warrior, that war with the Ethiopians seems inevitable, and Radamès hopes that he will be chosen as the Egyptian commander (Ramfis, Radamès: "Sì, corre voce l'Etiope ardisca" / Yes, it is rumored that Ethiopia dares once again to threaten our power).


title: Aida

text: Radamès dreams both of gaining victory on the battlefield and of Aida, an Ethiopian slave, with whom he is secretly in love (Radamès: "Se quel guerrier io fossi! ... Celeste Aida" / Heavenly Aida). Aida, who is also secretly in love with Radamès, is the captured daughter of the Ethiopian King Amonasro, but her Egyptian captors are unaware of her true identity. Her father has invaded Egypt to deliver her from servitude.


title: Aida

text: Amneris, the daughter of the Egyptian King, enters the hall. She too loves Radamès, but fears that his heart belongs to someone else (Radamès, Amneris: "Quale insolita gioia nel tuo sguardo" / In your looks I trace an unwonted joy).


title: Aida

text: Aida appears and, when Radamès sees her, Amneris notices that he looks disturbed. She suspects that Aida could be her rival, but is able to hide her jealousy and approach Aida (Amneris, Aida, Radamès: "Vieni, o diletta, appressati" / Come, O delight, come closer).


title: Aida

text: The King enters, along with the High Priest, Ramfis, and the whole palace court. A messenger announces that the Ethiopians, led by King Amonasro, are marching towards Thebes. The King declares war and proclaims that Radamès is the man chosen by the goddess Isis to be the leader of the army (The King, Messenger, Radamès, Aida, Amneris, Ramfis, chorus: "Alta cagion v'aduna .. Guerra, guerra, guerra!" / Oh fate o'er Egypt looming .. War, war, war!). Upon receiving this mandate from the King, Radamès proceeds to the temple of Vulcan to take up the sacred arms (The King, Radamès, Aida, Amneris, chorus: "Su! del Nilo al sacro lido" .. (reprise) "Guerra, guerra guerra!" / On! Of Nilus' sacred river, guard the shores .. (reprise) War, war, war!).


title: Aida

text: Alone in the hall, Aida feels torn between her love for her father, her country, and Radamès (Aida: "Ritorna vincitor!" / Return a conqueror!).


title: Aida

text: Solemn ceremonies and dances by the priestesses take place (High Priestess, chorus, Radamès: "Possente Ftha ... Tu che dal nulla" / O mighty Ptah). This is followed by the installation of Radamès to the office of commander-in-chief (High Priestess, chorus, Ramfis, Radamès: "Immenso Ftha .. Mortal, diletto ai Numi" / O mighty one, guard and protect!). All present in the temple pray fervently for the victory of Egypt and protection for their warriors ("Nume, custode e vindice"/ Hear us, O guardian deity).


title: Aida

text: Dances and music to celebrate Radamès' victory take place (Chorus, Amneris: "Chi mai fra gli inni e i plausi" / Our songs his glory praising). However, Amneris is still in doubt about Radamès' love and wonders whether Aida is in love with him. She tries to forget her doubt, entertaining her worried heart with the dance of Moorish slaves (Chorus, Amneris: "Vieni: sul crin ti piovano" / Come bind your flowing tresses).


title: Aida

text: When Aida enters the chamber, Amneris asks everyone to leave. By falsely telling Aida that Radamès has died in the battle, she tricks her into professing her love for him. In grief, and shocked by the news, Aida confesses that her heart belongs to Radamès eternally (Amneris, Aida: "Fu la sorte dell'armi a' tuoi funesta" / The battle's outcome was cruel for your people).


title: Aida

text: This confession fires Amneris with rage, and she plans on taking revenge on Aida. Ignoring Aida's pleadings (Amneris, Aida, chorus: "Su! del Nilo al sacro lido" / Up! at the sacred shores of the Nile), Amneris leaves her alone in the chamber.


title: Aida

text: Radamès returns victorious and the troops march into the city (Chorus, Ramfis: "Gloria all'Egitto, ad Iside" / Glory to Egypt, [and] to Isis!).


title: Aida

text: The Egyptian king decrees that on this day the triumphant Radamès may have anything he wishes. The Ethiopian captives are led onstage in chains, Amonasro among them. Aida immediately rushes to her father, who whispers to her to conceal his true identity as King of Ethiopia from the Egyptians. Amonasro deceptively proclaims to the Egyptians that the Ethiopian king (referring to himself) has been slain in battle. Aida, Amonasro, and the captured Ethiopians plead with the Egyptian King for mercy, but Ramfis and the Egyptian priests call for their death (Aida, Amneris, Radamès, The King, Amonasro, chorus: "Che veggo! .. Egli? .. Mio padre! .. Anch'io pugnai .. Struggi, o Re, queste ciurme feroci" / What do I see?.. Is it he? My father? .. Destroy, O King, these ferocious creatures).


title: Aida

text: Claiming the reward promised by the King of Egypt, Radamès pleads with him to spare the lives of the prisoners and to set them free. The King grants Radamès' wish, and declares that he (Radamès) will be his (the King's) successor and will marry the King's daughter (Amneris). (Aida, Amneris, Radamès, Ramfis, The King, Amonasro, chorus: "O Re: pei sacri Numi! .. Gloria all'Egitto" / O King, by the sacred gods ... Glory to Egypt!). At Ramfis' suggestion to the King, Aida and Amonasro remain as hostages to ensure that the Ethiopians do not avenge their defeat.


title: Aida

text: Prayers are said (Chorus, High Priestess, Ramfis, Amneris: "O tu che sei d'Osiride" / O thou who to Osiris art) on the eve of Amneris and Radamès' wedding in the Temple of Isis. Outside, Aida waits to meet with Radamès as they had planned (Aida: "Qui Radamès verra .. O patria mia" / Oh, my dear country!).


title: Aida

text: Amonasro appears and orders Aida to find out the location of the Egyptian army from Radamès. Aida, torn between her love for Radamès and her loyalty to her native land and to her father, reluctantly agrees. (Aida, Amonasro: "Ciel, mio padre! .. Rivedrai le foreste imbalsamate" / Once again shalt thou gaze). When Radamès arrives, Amonasro hides behind a rock and listens to their conversation.


title: Aida

text: Radamès affirms that he will marry Aida ("Pur ti riveggo, mia dolce Aida .. Nel fiero anelito"; "Fuggiam gli ardori inospiti .. Là, tra foreste vergini" / I see you again, my sweet Aida!), and Aida convinces him to flee to the desert with her.


title: Aida

text: In order to make their escape easier, Radamès proposes that they use a safe route without any fear of discovery and reveals the location where his army has chosen to attack. Upon hearing this, Amonasro comes out of hiding and reveals his identity. Radamès realizes, to his extreme dismay, that he has unwittingly revealed a crucial military secret to the enemy. At the same time, Amneris and Ramfis leave the temple and, seeing Radamès in conference with the enemy, call for the imperial guards. Amonasro draws a dagger, intending to kill Amneris and Ramfis before the guards can hear them, but Radamès disarms him, quickly orders him to flee with Aida, and surrenders himself to the imperial guards as Aida and Amonasro run off. The guards arrest him as a traitor.


title: Aida

text: Amneris desires to save Radamès ("L'aborrita rivale a me sfuggia" / My hated rival has escaped me). She calls for the guard to bring him to her.


title: Aida

text: She asks Radamès to deny the accusations, but Radamès, who does not wish to live without Aida, refuses. He is relieved to know Aida is still alive and hopes she has reached her own country (Amneris, Radamès: "Già i Sacerdoti adunansi" / Already the priests are assembling).


title: Aida

text: Offstage, Ramfis recites the charges against Radamès and calls on him to defend himself, but he stands mute, and is condemned to death as a traitor. Amneris, who remains onstage, protests that Radamès is innocent, and pleads with the priests to show mercy. The priests sentence him to be buried alive; Amneris weeps and curses the priests as he is taken away (Judgment scene, Amneris, Ramfis, and chorus: "Ahimè! .. morir mi sento .. Radamès, è deciso il tuo fato" / Alas .. I feel death .. Radamès, your fate is decided).


title: Aida

text: "Scene 2: The lower portion of the stage shows the vault in the Temple of Ptah; the upper portion represents the temple itself"


title: Aida

text: Radamès has been taken into the lower floor of the temple and sealed up in a dark vault, where he thinks that he is alone. As he hopes that Aida is in a safer place, he hears a sigh and then sees Aida. She has hidden herself in the vault in order to die with Radamès (Radamès: "La fatal pietra sovra me si chiuse" / The fatal stone now closes over me). They accept their terrible fate (Radamès: "Morir! Sì pura e bella" / To die! So pure and lovely!) and bid farewell to Earth and its sorrows (duet "Invan! Tutto e finito ... O terra addio"). Above the vault in the temple of Ptah, Amneris weeps and prays to the goddess Isis. In the vault below, Aida dies in Radamès' arms as the priests, offstage, pray to the god Ptah. (Chorus, Aida, Radamès, Amneris: "Immenso Ftha" / Almighty Ptah).


title: Aida

text: The opera has been adapted for motion pictures on several occasions, most notably in a 1953 production which starred Lois Maxwell as Amneris and Sophia Loren as Aida, and a 1987 Swedish production. In both cases, the lead actors lip-synched to recordings by actual opera singers. In the case of the 1953 film, Ebe Stignani sang as Amneris, while Renata Tebaldi sang as Aida. The opera's story, but not its music, was used as the basis for a 1998 musical of the same name written by Elton John and Tim Rice. The opera has been portrayed in the 2001 Italian animated film "Aida of the Trees" ("Aida degli alberi"). The characters are seen as anthropomorphic creatures between the fictional kingdoms of Alborea and Petra as the star-crossed lovers must find a way to unify their worlds together while facing off against the evil high priest Ramfis.


title: A Most Violent Year

text: A Most Violent Year is a 2014 American crime drama film written and directed by J. C. Chandor. The film stars Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain with Alessandro Nivola, David Oyelowo, Albert Brooks, and Catalina Sandino Moreno. Isaac plays Abel Morales, the owner of a small heating-oil company who is stressed by the competitiveness in the oil trade and from having to secure costly loans to expand his business. When his trucks start being hijacked, he faces increased pressure for his drivers to arm themselves.


title: A Most Violent Year

text: The film premiered as the opening film of AFI Fest on November 6, 2014, and it was released theatrically on December 31, 2014. Despite critical praise, the film lost money at the box office, grossing $12 million on a budget of $20 million; J. C. Chandor, Neal Dodson, and Anna Gerb won the National Board of Review Award for Best Film.


title: A Most Violent Year

text: In 1981 New York City, trucking company owner Abel Morales has had several trucks hijacked, ones carrying heating oil. Driver Julian is severely beaten by two hijackers. Abel's wife Anna beseeches Abel to fight violence with violence, but he refuses. Morales and his company are under investigation by Assistant District Attorney Lawrence, who seems determined to expose price fixing, tax evasion, and various other illegalities in the heating oil business.


title: A Most Violent Year

text: Morales's attorney, Andrew Walsh, brokers a deal with a group of Hasidic Jews headed by Joseph Mendelsohn to purchase a fuel oil terminal on the East River for $1.5 million. Morales makes a large down payment with the understanding that he will close in 30 days or lose his money.


title: A Most Violent Year

text: After moving into a new home, Morales chases an intruder, then finds a dropped gun. He confronts his competitors but they deny involvement. A Teamsters boss suggests Morales's drivers should carry handguns with fake permits. Morales refuses, fearing for his legitimate business reputation.


title: A Most Violent Year

text: Julian is again accosted by hijackers, and they shoot at each other. The police chase Julian and the others, who all escape. Morales's bank says that, due to the impending criminal indictments and this violent incident, it can no longer finance his purchase of the terminal.


title: A Most Violent Year

text: Morales gets a loan from competitors Saul and Lorraine Lefkowitz in exchange for partial use of the terminal, but it won't cover the entire purchase. Morales raises more money by taking out a mortgage on a building he owns with his younger brother. Another hijacking is reported, and he stops the stolen truck. The hijacker says he sells the oil in Far Rockaway. Morales confronts a competitor who has facilities in Far Rockaway, threatening to call the authorities. Morales is paid for the stolen oil but is still $600,000 short of the purchase price.


title: A Most Violent Year

text: Morales visits another competitor, Mafia-affiliated Peter Forente, to ask for the remaining money. Forente warns him that any such loan will be on onerous terms and tells him to think things through before committing to it. Dismayed, Morales tells Anna about Peter's terms and she confesses that she has been skimming from the company for years, storing the money in a secret account. Anna convinces Abel to use this money instead of a loan from Forente.


title: A Most Violent Year

text: Morales and Walsh pay the note and take possession of the terminal. Julian arrives carrying a gun, asking for a share of the profits. Morales refuses, and Julian kills himself. Morales tells Lawrence that the broader investigations into his firm are hurting his business, and that they should find a conclusion at some point. Lawrence agrees in general terms and suggests that the new oil terminal will develop Morales' business and give him "political influence." Lawrence then hints that Morales might be able to help him with his higher aspirations. Morales claims that he has always taken the path that is "most right".


title: A Most Violent Year

text: On May 23, 2013, "Deadline" reported that filmmaker J. C. Chandor would write and direct "A Most Violent Year", which was to begin shooting in the fall. Neal Dodson and Anna Gerb co-produced the film along with FilmNation Entertainment's Glen Basner as executive producer. On January 22, 2014, A24 acquired the U.S. distribution rights to the film, which A24 then scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of 2014. The film was co-financed by Image Nation and Participant Media, and produced by Before the Door Pictures and Washington Square Films.


title: A Most Violent Year

text: On June 5, 2013, Javier Bardem joined the film to play the lead. On July 16, 2013, Jessica Chastain joined the cast to play the lead role along with Bardem. On December 3, 2013, Oscar Isaac officially replaced Bardem. On January 27, 2014, Albert Brooks joined the film, playing Isaac's character's attorney, and actress Catalina Sandino Moreno also joined the film in a supporting role. On January 29, 2014, while the film's shooting was underway, David Oyelowo joined the cast. Other cast members include Ashley Williams, Elyes Gabel, Harris Yulin, Giselle Eisenberg, and Elizabeth Marvel. On February 21, 2014, Alessandro Nivola was cast to play Peter Forente, a heating oil distributor who is a competitor to Isaac's character.


title: A Most Violent Year

text: The musical score for "A Most Violent Year" was composed by Alex Ebert, who previously collaborated with director Chandor on "All Is Lost" (2013). Influenced musically by the culture and life of the 1980s, specifically thinking of "Miami Vice" and "Scarface", Ebert predominantly utilized synthesizers. "It's a synthesis of sort-of calling-card themes and extended atmospheres. There’s horns and flutes and strings, but there’s also sort of these meditative synthetic beds underlying."


title: A Most Violent Year

text: The film had its world premiere at the AFI Fest on November 6, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. The film was released in four United States theaters on December 31, 2014, by A24 and expanded from there to a nationwide release. In the United Kingdom, the film was released by Icon Film Distribution.


title: A Most Violent Year

text: "A Most Violent Year" received very positive reviews, with many critics comparing Chandor's style in this film favorably to the works of Sidney Lumet, and praise given to the performances of Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 90%, based on 232 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Gritty, gripping, and weighted with thought-provoking heft, "A Most Violent Year" represents another strong entry in writer-director J. C. Chandor's impressive filmography." Metacritic gave the film a score of 79 out of 100, based on reviews from 44 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: A Most Violent Year

text: Business Insiders Brett Arnold wrote that the movie "may be slow, but it's never dull." "Variety"s Scott Foundas compared it to Chandor's previous film saying the movie is "a tough, gritty, richly atmospheric thriller that lacks some of the formal razzle-dazzle of his solo seafaring epic, 'All Is Lost,' but makes up for it with an impressively sustained low-boil tension and the skillful navigating of a complex plot." "The Wrap"s Alonso Duralde praised the director, proclaiming that Chandor "firmly plants himself among this generation's great filmmakers." Chastain was nominated for a Golden Globe.


title: The Backyardigans

text: The Backyardigans is a computer-animated musical children's television series created by Janice Burgess. The series was written and recorded at Nickelodeon Animation Studio. It centers on five animal neighbors who imagine themselves on fantastic adventures in their backyard. Each episode is set to a different musical genre and features four songs, composed by Evan Lurie with lyrics by McPaul Smith. The Backyardigans' adventures span many different genres and settings. The show's writers took inspiration from action-adventure movies, and many episodes are parodies of movies.


title: The Backyardigans

text: Nickelodeon called the show "a home-grown Nick Jr. property," as "the whole creative team... [had] been part of the Nick Jr. family for years." Creator Janice Burgess had worked as Nick Jr.'s production executive since the mid-1990s. "The Backyardigans" originated as a live-action pilot episode titled "Me and My Friends," filmed at Nickelodeon Studios Florida in 1998. The characters were played by full-body puppets on an indoor stage. The pilot was rejected by Nickelodeon, and Burgess decided to rework the concept into an animated series. In 2002, a second pilot was animated at Nickelodeon Digital in New York. The second pilot was successful, and the series entered production.


title: The Backyardigans

text: The show ran for four seasons totaling 80 episodes. Most episodes aired on Nickelodeon on weekday mornings. In 2009, the show was planned to continue beyond the fourth season. However, in 2010, the series' creator Janice Burgess decided to move onto a different series: Nickelodeon's revival of "Winx Club". Burgess worked as a creative director and writer for "Winx Club" before eventually retiring from Nickelodeon in 2014.


title: The Backyardigans

text: "The Backyardigans" was critically acclaimed. Many critics felt that "The Backyardigans" was superior to Nickelodeon's other preschool shows because its writing was sophisticated and enjoyable for older viewers. "The New York Times" and Common Sense Media commended the show for including frequent nods to an older audience, such as references to action-adventure franchises. The quality of the show's music was also praised by critics, and the show received eight Daytime Emmy Award nominations for its music.


title: The Backyardigans

text: The show centers around a group of five animal neighbors: Uniqua, Pablo, Tyrone, Tasha, and Austin. They share a large backyard between their houses. In each episode, they meet in the backyard and imagine themselves on a fantastical adventure. Their adventures span a variety of different genres and settings; many episodes involve visiting different parts of the world, traveling back or forward in time, and using magic or supernatural powers. The characters give themselves different jobs or roles depending on the episode's imaginary setting, such as detectives, knights, or scientists. From the second season onward, many episodes are parodies of action-adventure films such as "James Bond", "Star Trek", "Indiana Jones", and "Ghostbusters".


title: The Backyardigans

text: The openings and endings of the episodes follow a similar pattern. The stories begin with the characters in the backyard, introducing themselves and explaining the scenario they are about to imagine. When the Backyardigans finish their adventure, the fantasy sequence fades, restoring the original backyard setting. The characters sing a closing song, then walk inside their houses for a snack and close the door. As the episode ends, at least one character reopens the door and shouts a phrase related to the adventure.


title: The Backyardigans

text: The show follows the format of a stage musical. Each episode is set to a different genre of music and features four songs. The characters sing and dance to the songs with original choreography. The song and dance routines are often used to introduce a character's imaginary role, further the plot, or explain a problem. In addition to singing songs in a new genre each episode, the show's background music changes to match, scoring all of the Backyardigans' actions.


title: The Backyardigans

text: Each of the five characters on the show has two voice actors: one for speaking, and the other for singing. Live-action dancers first performed the dancing on the show, and their movements were later transported to animation. The choreographer, Beth Bogush, described the process: "What we do is we film the live footage in the studio, send that off, and they do a Leica, and then they send it to the animators. The animators watch and were pretty precise. What we film for that day is pretty close to what you see in the character."


title: The Backyardigans

text: Janice Burgess drew inspiration from action films when writing episodes of the show, as she wanted to adapt high-stakes stories for a young audience. In an interview with the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette", Burgess was asked what inspired the show; she responded, "I know this is going to sound very strange, but the things I really draw upon are action films. I like "Die Hard", "Star Wars", the Tolkien movies ... I thought it would be fun to take kids on that big adventure." The character of Uniqua was based on how Burgess viewed herself as a child; as a result, Uniqua was written as the leader of the Backyardigans, and Uniqua was the only character who appeared in every episode.


title: The Backyardigans

text: Before Nickelodeon ordered the first season, two pilot episodes of "The Backyardigans" were made. The first was a live-action pilot titled "Me and My Friends," filmed at Nickelodeon Studios in September 1998. The characters were played by full-body puppets who danced on an indoor stage. The pilot was rejected by Nickelodeon, and Janice Burgess decided to rework the concept into an animated show. In 2002, a second pilot was created; it was a computer-animated short produced at Nickelodeon Digital. The second pilot was greenlit by Nickelodeon to become a full-length series. Nickelodeon called the show "a home-grown Nick Jr. property," as "the whole creative team... [had] been part of the Nick Jr. family for years."


title: The Backyardigans

text: In December 2009, Nick Jr. president Brown Johnson stated that Nickelodeon intended to keep the show running for "at least another five years. Maybe forever." Nickelodeon believed that "The Backyardigans" was an ideal "evergreen" property: a series that would stay in production for a long time through multiple generations. A fifth season was planned in 2009. However, in 2010, Janice Burgess decided to end "The Backyardigans" to start working on one of Nickelodeon Animation Studio's newer projects: a revival series of "Winx Club", a girls' action-adventure franchise. Burgess brought the former "Backyardigans" crew onto "Winx Club" as well. This included lyricist McPaul Smith; writers Jeff Borkin, Adam Peltzman, and Carin Greenberg; line producer Sara Kamen; and script coordinator Jonathan Foss. Burgess worked as the creative director, story editor, and writer on "Winx Club". The crew considered it a natural progression, as "Winx Club" was also a musical action-adventure show, but it targeted an older audience, allowing them to branch out.


title: The Backyardigans

text: "The Backyardigans" received eight Daytime Emmy Award nominations, and Janice Burgess won the 2008 Emmy for Outstanding Special Class Animated Program. In a 2016 article for "The Chicago Tribune", drama critic Chris Jones called "The Backyardigans" "a fabulously inventive TV show." "DVD Talk"s John Crichton gave the show a "hearty recommendation," citing its "enjoyable (and varied) music score, the character voices (both spoken and singing) and the impressive visual presentation." "Slate" named the "Backyardigans" episode "The Swamp Creature" one of the best episodes of children's television.


title: The Backyardigans

text: Critics noted that the series held broad appeal to older viewers, due to its high-quality music and focus on character-driven, non-educational stories. Susan Stewart of "The New York Times" said "it's hard to say whether "The Backyardigans" is a fantasy for children or for their parents," commending the show's animation and storytelling. Common Sense Media's Emily Ashby wrote, "It's not always easy to find a show you like as much as your youngsters do, but "The Backyardigans" definitely has the potential to fit that bill." Journalist Virginia Heffernan wrote, "with each episode devoted not just to a separate quest but also to a different musical genre...the show blows you away with its artistic exactitude."


title: The Backyardigans

text: In 2021, the songs "Castaways" and "Into the Thick of It" went viral on TikTok, with the former appearing in more than 745,000 videos and the latter appearing in more than 46,000 videos as of June 2021. Due to their success on TikTok, "Castaways" and "Into the Thick of It" reached number 5 and 13 respectively on the Spotify viral 50 chart in the US for the week beginning on June 10, 2021.


title: The Backyardigans

text: "The Backyardigans" was adapted into several stage shows. These included 2008's "Tale of the Mighty Knights" and 2010's "Storytime Live!" (an event featuring other Nick Jr. characters from "Dora the Explorer", "Wonder Pets!", and "Ni Hao, Kai-Lan", as well as hosts Moose and Zee). In Canada, separate live shows called "Quest for the Extra Ordinary Aliens" (2008) and "Sea Deep in Adventure" (2009) were created.


title: The Backyardigans

text: Activision released a "The Backyardigans" PC game, "Mission to Mars," in October 2006. Also, there are interactive "Backyardigans" games available for the LeapPad and VTech's V.Smile consoles. There is also a LeapFrogClickStart game titled "Number Pie Samurai," teaching children the necessary computer skills.


title: The Backyardigans

text: From 2005 to 2007, Kohl's had a section devoted to the series' merchandise, including a clothing line and toys exclusively in-store.


title: The Backyardigans

text: Over one hundred storybooks (both original stories and episode-based) were released throughout the series' run. Most of these were released in both Canada and the United States; however, a 2006 series of educational books were exclusively sold in Canada under the license of Treehouse TV.


title: The Backyardigans

text: Fisher-Price produced numerous plush toys and interactive character toys (mostly Uniqua, Pablo, and Tyrone). There are also Beanie Babies of all the main characters available.


title: The Backyardigans

text: In the United States, the show's 80 episodes were released across a series of 21 DVD releases. Ten episodes of the first season were also released to VHS across five volumes. Viacom's Paramount Home Media Distribution published all of the show's video releases. Outside North America, Paramount released DVDs under a separate deal with Nelvana, with this worldwide deal later transitioning to Fremantle Home Entertainment.


title: The Backyardigans

text: All four seasons have been released on the iTunes Store in Canada and the United States; however, the US iTunes Store is missing three episodes from the first season: "Secret Mission," "It's Great to Be a Ghost!," and "High Tea".


title: The Backyardigans

text: There were three "The Backyardigans" albums released in North America, and one album released in Europe. Each has approximately 20 tracks, while "Born to Play" has four bonus tracks only available on the iTunes Store.


title: The Backyardigans

text: Released on July 12, 2005, under Nick Records' label. This is the first album sold in stores. It contains nineteen tracks from the first season, including the opening theme.


title: The Backyardigans

text: This second CD was released on July 11, 2006, under Nick Records' label. It contains eighteen tracks from Seasons 1 and 2.


title: The Backyardigans

text: The third and final "Backyardigans" CD was released on January 22, 2008, under Sony BMG's label. It contains songs from Seasons 1-2, as well as all the songs from Tale of the Mighty Knights. There is a total of 22 tracks. This album was released in a cardboard foldout case, rather than a jewel case like the previous two releases. Borders carried the jewel case release exclusively, which included a booklet.


title: French Second Republic

text: The French Second Republic ( or ), officially the French Republic (), was the republican government of France that existed between 1848 and 1852. It was established in February 1848, with the February Revolution that overthrew the July Monarchy of King Louis-Phillip, and ended in December 1852. Following the election of President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte in 1848 and the 1851 coup d'état the president staged, Bonaparte proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon III and initiated the Second French Empire. The short-lived republic officially adopted the motto of the First Republic; .


title: French Second Republic

text: The 1848 Revolution in France, also known as the February Revolution, was one wave of revolutions across Europe in that year. The events swept away the Orleans monarchy (1830–1848) and led to the creation of the nation's second republic.


title: French Second Republic

text: The Revolution of 1830, part of a wave of similar regime changes across Europe, had put an end to the monarchy of the Bourbon Restoration and installed a more liberal constitutional monarchy under the Orleans dynasty and governed predominantly by Guizot's conservative-liberal centre-right and Thiers's progressive-liberal centre-left.


title: French Second Republic

text: But to the left of the dynastic parties, the monarchy was criticised by Republicans (a mixture of Radicals and socialists) for being insufficiently democratic: its electoral system was based on a narrow, privileged electorate of property-owners and therefore excluded workers. During the 1840s several petitions requesting electoral reform (universal manhood suffrage) had been issued by the National Guard but had been rejected by both of the main dynastic parties. Political meetings dedicated to this issue were banned by the government, and electoral reformers' therefore bypassed the ban by holding a series of 'banquets' (1847–1848), events where the political debate was disguised as dinner speeches. This movement began overseen by Odilon Barrot's moderate centre-left liberal critics of Guizot's conservative government but took on a life of its own after 1846 when economic crisis encouraged ordinary workers to demand a say over the government.


title: French Second Republic

text: On 14 February 1848 Guizot's government decided to put an end to the banquets, on the grounds of constituting illegal political assembly. On 22 February, striking workers and republican students took to the streets, demanding an end to Guizot's government, and erected barricades. Odilon Barrot called a motion of no confidence in Guizot, hoping that this might satisfy the rioters, but the Chamber of Deputies sided with the premier. The government called a state of emergency, thinking it could rely on the troops of the National Guard, but instead on the morning of 23 February the Guardsmen sided with the revolutionaries, protecting them from the regular soldiers who by now had been called in.


title: French Second Republic

text: The industrial population of the faubourgs was welcomed by the National Guard on their way towards the centre of Paris. Barricades were raised after the shooting of protestors outside the Guizot manor by soldiers.


title: French Second Republic

text: On 23 February 1848 premier François Guizot's cabinet resigned, abandoned by the petite bourgeoisie, on whose support they thought they could depend. The heads of the more left-leaning conservative-liberal monarchist parties, Louis-Mathieu Molé and Adolphe Thiers, declined to form a government. Odilon Barrot accepted, and Thomas Robert Bugeaud, commander-in-chief of the first military division, who had begun to attack the barricades, was recalled. In the face of the insurrection that had now taken possession of the whole capital, King Louis-Philippe abdicated in favour of his nine-year-old grandson, Prince Philippe, Count of Paris, but under pressure of insurgents who invaded the chamber of the Chamber of Deputies, leaders leaned in favour of the insurrection and prepared a provisional government; a (second) republic was then proclaimed by Alphonse de Lamartine.


title: French Second Republic

text: This provisional government, with Dupont de l'Eure as its president, consisted of Lamartine for foreign affairs, Crémieux for justice, Ledru-Rollin for the interior, Carnot for public instruction, Goudchaux for finance, Arago for the navy, and Burdeau for war. Garnier-Pagès was mayor of Paris.


title: French Second Republic

text: But, as in 1830, the republican-socialist party set up a rival government at the Hôtel de Ville (city hall), including Louis Blanc, Armand Marrast, Ferdinand Flocon, and Alexandre Martin, known as Albert L'Ouvrier ("Albert the Worker"), which bid fair to involve discord and civil war. But this time the Palais Bourbon was not victorious over the Hôtel de Ville. It had to consent to a fusion of the two bodies, in which, however, the predominating elements were the moderate republicans. It was uncertain what the policy of the new government would be.


title: French Second Republic

text: One party seeing that in spite of the changes in the last sixty years of all political institutions the position of the people had not been improved, demanded a reform of society itself, the abolition of the privileged position of property, which they viewed as the only obstacle to equality, and as an emblem hoisted the red flag (the 1791 red flag was, however, the symbol not merely of the French Revolution, but rather of martial law and of order). The other party wished to maintain society on the basis of its traditional institutions, and rallied round the tricolore. As a concession made by Lamartine to popular aspirations, and in exchange of the maintaining of the tricolour flag, he conceded the Republican triptych of "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité", written on the flag, on which a red rosette was also to be added.


title: French Second Republic

text: The first collision took place as to the form which the 1848 Revolution was to take. Lamartine wished for them to maintain their original principles, with the whole country as supreme, whereas the revolutionaries under Ledru-Rollin wished for the republic of Paris to hold a monopoly on political power. On 5 March the government, under the pressure of the Parisian clubs, decided in favour of an immediate reference to the people, and direct universal suffrage, and adjourned it until 26 April. This added the uneducated masses to the electorate and led to the election of the Constituent Assembly of 4 May 1848. The provisional government having resigned, the republican and anti-socialist majority on 9 May entrusted the supreme power to an Executive Commission consisting of five members: Arago, Pierre Marie de Saint-Georges, Garnier-Pagès, Lamartine and Ledru-Rollin.


title: French Second Republic

text: The result of the general election, the return of a constituent assembly, predominantly moderate, if not monarchical, dashed the hopes of those who had looked for the establishment, by a peaceful revolution, of their ideal socialist state; but they were not prepared to yield without a struggle, and in Paris itself they commanded a formidable force. In spite of the preponderance of the "tri-colour" party in the provisional government, so long as the voice of France had not spoken, the socialists, supported by the Parisian proletariat, had exercised an influence on policy disproportionate to their relative numbers. By the decree of 24 February, the provisional government had solemnly accepted the principle of the "right to work," and decided to establish "National Workshops" for the unemployed; at the same time, a sort of industrial parliament was established at the Luxembourg Palace, under the presidency of Louis Blanc, with the object of preparing a scheme for the organization of labour; and, lastly, by the decree of 8 March, the property qualification for enrolment in the National Guard had been abolished and the workmen were supplied with arms. The socialists thus formed a sort of state-within-a-state, complete with a government and an armed force.


title: French Second Republic

text: On 15 May, an armed mob, headed by Raspail, Blanqui and Barbès, and assisted by the proletariat-aligned Guard, attempted to overwhelm the Assembly, but were defeated by the bourgeois-aligned battalions of the National Guard. Meanwhile, the national workshops were unable to provide remunerative work for the genuine unemployed, and of the thousands who applied, the greater number were employed in aimless digging and refilling of trenches; soon even this expedient failed, and those for whom work could not be invented were given a half wage of 1 franc a day.


title: French Second Republic

text: On 21 June, Alfred de Falloux decided in the name of the parliamentary commission on labour that the workmen should be discharged within three days and those who were able-bodied should be forced to enlist in the armed forces.


title: French Second Republic

text: After this, the June Days Uprising broke out, over the course of 24–26 June, when the eastern industrial quarter of Paris, led by Pujol, fought the western quarter, led by Louis-Eugène Cavaignac, who had been appointed dictator. The socialist party was defeated and afterwards its members were deported. But the republic had been discredited and had already become unpopular with both the peasants, who were exasperated by the new land tax of 45 centimes imposed in order to fill the empty treasury, and with the bourgeoisie, who were intimidated by the power of the revolutionary clubs and disadvantaged by the economic stagnation. By the "massacres" of the June Days, the working classes were also alienated from it. The Duke of Wellington wrote at this time, "France needs a Napoleon! I cannot yet see him..." The granting of universal suffrage to a society with Imperialist sympathies would benefit reactionaries, which culminated in the election of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte as president of the republic.


title: French Second Republic

text: The new constitution, proclaiming a democratic republic, direct universal suffrage and the separation of powers, was promulgated on 4 November 1848. Under the new constitution, there was to be a single permanent Assembly of 750 members elected for a term of three years by the scrutin de liste. The Assembly would elect members of a Council of State to serve for six years. Laws would be proposed by the Council of State, to be voted on by the Assembly. The executive power was delegated to the President, who was elected for four years by direct universal suffrage, i.e. on a broader basis than that of the Assembly, and was not eligible for re-election. He was to choose his ministers, who, like him, would be responsible to the Assembly. Finally, a revision of the constitution was made practically impossible; it involved obtaining three times in succession a majority of three-quarters of the deputies in a special assembly. It was in vain that Jules Grévy, in the name of those who perceived the obvious and inevitable risk of creating, under the name of a president, a monarch and more than a king, proposed that the head of the state should be no more than a removable president of the ministerial council. Lamartine, thinking that he was sure to be the choice of the electors under universal suffrage, won over the support of the Chamber, which did not even take the precaution of rendering ineligible the members of families which had reigned over France. It made the presidency an office dependent upon popular acclamation.


title: French Second Republic

text: The election was keenly contested; the democratic republicans adopted as their candidate Ledru-Rollin, the "pure republicans" Cavaignac, and the recently reorganized Imperialist party Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte. Unknown in 1835, and forgotten or despised since 1840, Louis Napoleon had in the last eight years advanced sufficiently in the public estimation to be elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1848 by five departments. He owed this rapid increase of popularity partly to blunders of the government of July, which had unwisely aroused the memory of the country, filled as it was with recollections of the Empire, and partly to Louis Napoléon's campaign carried on from his prison at Ham by means of pamphlets of socialistic tendencies. Moreover, the monarchists, led by Thiers and the committee of the Rue de Poitiers, were no longer content even with the safe dictatorship of the upright Cavaignac, and joined forces with the Bonapartists. On 10 December the peasants gave over 5,000,000 votes to a name: Napoléon, which stood for order at all costs, against 1,400,000 for Cavaignac. Henri Georges Boulay de la Meurthe was elected Vice President, a unique position in French history.


title: French Second Republic

text: For three years, there was an indecisive struggle between the heterogeneous Assembly and the President, who was silently awaiting his opportunity. He chose as his ministers men with little inclination towards republicanism, with a preference for Orléanists, the chief of whom was Odilon Barrot. In order to strengthen his position, he endeavoured to conciliate the reactionary parties, without committing himself to any of them. The chief instance of this was the expedition to Rome voted by the Catholics, to restore the temporal authority of the Pope Pius IX, who had fled Rome in fear of the nationalists and republicans. (Garibaldi and Mazzini had been elected to a Constitutional Assembly.) The Pope called for international intervention to restore him in his temporal power. The French President moved to establish the power and prestige of France against that of Austria, as beginning the work of European renovation and reconstruction which he already looked upon as his mission. French troops under Oudinot marched into Rome. This provoked an insurrection in Paris in favour of the Roman Republic, that of the Château d'Eau, which was crushed on 13 June 1849. On the other hand, when the Pope, though only just restored, began to yield to the general movement of reaction, the President demanded that he should set up a Liberal government. The Pope's dilatory reply having been accepted by the French ministry, the President replaced it on 1 November, by the Fould-Rocher cabinet.


title: French Second Republic

text: This looked like a declaration of war against the Catholic and monarchist majority in the Legislative Assembly, which had been elected on 28 May in a moment of panic. But the President again pretended to be playing the game of the Orléanists, as he had done in the case of the Constituent Assembly. The complementary elections of March and April 1850 resulted in an unexpected victory for the republicans which alarmed the conservative leaders, Thiers, Berryer and Montalembert. The President and the Assembly co-operated in the passage of the "Loi Falloux" of 15 March 1850, which again placed university instruction under the direction of the Church.


title: French Second Republic

text: A conservative electoral law was passed on 31 May. It required each voter to prove three years' residence at his current address by way of entries in the record of direct taxes. This effectively repealed universal suffrage: factory workers, who moved fairly often, were thus disenfranchised. The law of 16 July aggravated the severity of the press restrictions by re-establishing the "caution money" ("cautionnement") deposited by proprietors and editors of papers with the government as a guarantee of good behaviour. Finally, an interpretation of the law on clubs and political societies suppressed about this time all the republican societies.


title: French Second Republic

text: However, the president had only joined in Montalembert cry of "Down with the Republicans!" in the hope of effecting a revision of the constitution without having recourse to a "coup d'état". His concessions only increased the boldness of the monarchists, while they had only accepted Louis-Napoléon as president in opposition to the Republic and as a step in the direction of the monarchy. A conflict was now inevitable between his personal policy and the majority of the Chamber, who were moreover divided into legitimists and Orléanists, in spite of the death of Louis-Philippe in August 1850.


title: French Second Republic

text: Louis-Napoléon exploited their projects for a restoration of the monarchy, which he knew to be unpopular in the country, and which gave him the opportunity of furthering his own personal ambitions. From 8 August to 12 November 1850 he went about France stating the case for a revision of the constitution in speeches which he varied according to each place; he held reviews, at which cries of "Vive Napoléon!" showed that the army was with him; he superseded General Changarnier, on whose arms the parliament relied for the projected monarchical "coup d'état"; he replaced his Orléanist ministry by obscure men devoted to his own cause, such as Morny, Fleury and Persigny, and gathered round him officers of the African army, broken men like General Saint-Arnaud; in fact he practically declared open war.


title: French Second Republic

text: His reply to the votes of censure passed by the Assembly, and their refusal to increase his civil list was to hint at a vast communistic plot in order to scare the bourgeoisie, and to denounce the electoral law of 31 May 1850, in order to gain the support of the mass of the people. The Assembly retaliated by throwing out the proposal for a partial reform of that article of the constitution which prohibited the re-election of the president and the re-establishment of universal suffrage (July). All hope of a peaceful issue was at an end. When the questors called upon the Chamber to have posted up in all barracks the decree of 6 May 1848 concerning the right of the Assembly to demand the support of the troops if attacked, the Mountain, dreading a restoration of the monarchy, voted with the Bonapartists against the measure, thus disarming the legislative power.


title: French Second Republic

text: Louis-Napoléon saw his opportunity, and organised the French coup of 1851. On the night of 1/2 December 1851, the anniversary of his uncle Napoleon's coronation in 1804 and his victory at Austerlitz in 1805, he dissolved the Chamber, re-established universal suffrage, had all the party leaders arrested, and summoned a new assembly to prolong his term of office for ten years. The deputies who had met under Berryer at the Mairie of the 10th arrondissement to defend the constitution and proclaim the deposition of Louis Napoleon were scattered by the troops at Mazas and Mont Valérien. The resistance organized by the republicans within Paris under Victor Hugo was soon subdued by the intoxicated soldiers. The more serious resistance in the "départements" was crushed by declaring a state of siege and by the "mixed commissions." The plebiscite of 20 December, ratified by a huge majority the "coup d'état" in favour of the prince-president, who alone reaped the benefit of the excesses of the Republicans and the reactionary passions of the monarchists.


title: Vans

text: Vans is an American manufacturer of skateboarding shoes and related apparel, established in Anaheim, California, and owned by VF Corporation. The company also sponsors surf, snowboarding, BMX, and motocross teams. From 1996 to 2019, the company was the primary sponsor of the annual Warped Tour music festival.


title: Vans

text: Paul Van Doren; his brother, James; and Gordon C. Lee opened the first Vans store as "The Van Doren Rubber Company" on March 16, 1966, at 704 East Broadway in Anaheim, California. The business manufactured shoes and sold them directly to the public. Upon opening, twelve customers purchased Vans deck shoes (now called "Authentic"), similar to those manufactured by Keds but with a thicker sole. The store had display models of three styles of shoes, priced between US$2.49 and US$4.99, but did not have any inventory ready to sell and Paul Van Doren did not have change to give customers; customers took their shoes home and came back the next day to pay.


title: Vans

text: The original Vans skateboard logo was designed in Costa Mesa, California, in the 1970s by Mark Van Doren, son of then-President and co-owner James Van Doren, at age 13; Mark's design was a stencil, allowing the logo to be spray-painted onto his skateboards. The design was incorporated into the heel tab on Style 95, an early Vans skateboard shoe. Mark's interest in skateboarding is what led Vans to manufacture skateboarding shoes.


title: Vans

text: In 1976, Vans began using its "Off The Wall" motto, a slang phrase used by skateboarders while doing tricks in empty pools. Around this time, Vans released its Vans Side-stripe and Vans #36, also known as the "Old Skool" design.


title: Vans

text: In 1984, facing heavy competition and a market flooded with Vans counterfeits, Vans lowered its prices and eventually filed for bankruptcy protection. In 1988, Van Doren and Lee sold the company to banking firm McCown De Leeuw & Co. for US$74.4 million. In 1989, many Vans counterfeiters were apprehended by the U.S. and Mexican governments and ordered to cease production.


title: Vans

text: By 1991, the company's shoes were highly desired due to high demand and low supply. The company expanded internationally; released new models, including snowboard shoes; and was renamed Vans, Inc. to reflect its customers calling the shoes "Vans" for short. The same year, Vans went public at US$14 per share on NASDAQ. In 2004, Vans merged with North Carolina-based VF Corporation. In 2016, in celebration of its 50th anniversary, Vans released a new logo and launched a campaign to target a wider audience.


title: Vans

text: Since 1999, Vans has sponsored and supported Warped Tour, the longest-running touring music festival to date in North America. In 2001, Warped Tour was rebranded as Vans Warped Tour.


title: Vans

text: Vans became the title sponsor of the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, California, in 2014, and in 2010, the company sponsored the Duct Tape Invitational.


title: Vans

text: In 2022, to commence the US Open of Surfing period, Vans hosted the BMX Waffle Cup, a freestyle BMX invitational tournament. Their Huntington Beach skate park's course was modified by BMX riders for the tournament, and was themed after the US Open.


title: Vans

text: Vans opened its first skate park in 1998 at The Outlets at Orange, in Orange, California. It features a indoor street course, deep combo pool, area for amateurs, mini ramps, outdoor street course, and arcade. The park was updated in 2009. It has remained closed since March 2020, when BMX rider Tyler Kanarr died after sustaining major injuries in the park.


title: Vans

text: The company built its second skate park in Huntington Beach, California, which opened to the public in 2010. It includes a skate bowl and a skate plaza. The park is , and Vans pays the city US$1 per year for its 20-year lease.


title: Vans

text: Vans' shoes have often been customized cosmetically by wearers, with many of their painting and drawing patterns being adopted by the company for their official models. Most notably, the checkerboard pattern, popular in ska and punk culture, was adopted after the company noticed skateboarders drawing it on their shoes.


title: Vans

text: In 1982, Sean Penn wore a pair of Vans checkerboard slip-ons as character Jeff Spicoli in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High".


title: Vans

text: In 2016, the internet meme "Damn Daniel", featuring California teen Daniel Lara wearing Vans, went viral. In appreciation, the company gave Lara a lifetime supply of Vans shoes.


title: Richard Coyle

text: Richard Coyle is an English actor. He portrayed lead role of Father Faustus Blackwood in Netflix series "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina", and Jeff Murdock in the sitcom "Coupling".


title: Richard Coyle

text: Coyle was born in Sheffield, England. Coyle is the second youngest of five sons. Their father was a builder. He began his acting career after a stint working on a ferry entertaining passengers, where he was told by a theatre director that he had a talent and should pursue it further. He graduated in Languages and Philosophy from the University of York in 1995 and was then accepted into the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, graduating in 1998, the same year as his close friends Dean Lennox Kelly and Oded Fehr.


title: Richard Coyle

text: Coyle was married to actress Georgia Mackenzie. He was in a relationship with actress Ruth Bradley from early 2011 though by 2017 this had ended and he was seeing someone else.


title: Richard Coyle

text: He began by appearing in such television programmes as "Lorna Doone", as John Ridd and Evelyn Waugh's wartime saga "Sword of Honour", and in Mike Leigh's film "Topsy-Turvy." He played Mr Coxe in 1999's BBC version of "Wives and Daughters". In 2000, Coyle's big break arrived in the form of the character Jeff Murdock in the comedy "Coupling". In 2003 he chose not to return to "Coupling" for its fourth series, and refused requests to return for a "goodbye episode". In a 2005 interview, Coyle stated this was to avoid typecasting:


title: Richard Coyle

text: He also starred in the short-lived 2002-2003 BBC show "Strange", and had roles in the films "Human Traffic", "Franklyn", and "A Good Year". He appeared in the new special episode of "Cracker: Nine Eleven" in October 2006 (TV) and starred in "The Whistleblowers" on ITV. He also starred in the 2001 version of "Othello" as Michael Cassio.


title: Richard Coyle

text: In 2004, Coyle played the role of Alcock, body servant to John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, in "The Libertine" alongside Johnny Depp. He appeared in Mike Newell's 2010 movie "", playing Jake Gyllenhaal's older brother, the ambiguous Crown Prince Tus.


title: Richard Coyle

text: He was cast as the lead role, Moist von Lipwig, in the film "Going Postal", based on the book of the same name by Terry Pratchett. This was broadcast on television in May 2010.


title: Richard Coyle

text: Coyle had a leading role in Renny Harlin's film "5 Days of War", about the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia over the territory of South Ossetia. In September 2011, Coyle appeared as William Winthrop, in Madonna's feature-directorial debut "W.E." about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. He appeared as Garda Ciarán O'Shea in "Grabbers", the Irish comedy monster movie. Coyle also plays Wallace in "", the sequel to the 2008 British horror film "Outpost", and the lead of drug pusher Frank in the 2012 English-language remake of Nicolas Winding Refn’s 1996 cult classic "Pusher".


title: Richard Coyle

text: In 2012, Coyle joined the cast of the USA Network show "Covert Affairs" as Simon Fischer, an FSB agent and love interest for Piper Perabo's Annie Walker. His character recurred until halfway through season three.


title: Richard Coyle

text: In 2014, NBC began airing the series "Crossbones", with Coyle as Tom Lowe, who is assigned to kill the pirate Blackbeard (played by John Malkovich).


title: Richard Coyle

text: In 2018, Coyle was cast as Father Faustus Blackwood, a high priest of the Church of Night and Dean of the Academy of the Unseen Arts in the Netflix series "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina".


title: Richard Coyle

text: In January 2021, Coyle announced via Instagram that he has been cast in "", scheduled to be released in 2022 but said he could not disclose whom he was playing. When the trailer came out that December, it was confirmed that he would be playing Aberforth Dumbledore.


title: Richard Coyle

text: He was cast as the lead in Peter Gill's 2002 stage premiere of "The York Realist", and later in the Donmar Warehouse production of the play "Proof", in London, alongside Gwyneth Paltrow, and on the success of this he was cast in Patrick Marber's reworking of August Strindberg's play "After Miss Julie" with Kelly Reilly and Helen Baxendale. From September to November 2004, Coyle played the title role in Michael Grandage's production of Friedrich Schiller's "Don Carlos" which then transferred to the West End from January to April 2005. The cast also included Derek Jacobi, Peter Eyre and Una Stubbs. The V&A theatre archive has a copy of a film of the production which can be privately viewed.


title: Richard Coyle

text: He was in Peter Gill's production of John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger" at the Theatre Royal, Bath from August to September 2006. In 2008 Richard starred in Harold Pinter's "The Lover" and "The Collection" at the Comedy Theatre in London, alongside Charlie Cox and Gina McKee.


title: Richard Coyle

text: His own theatre company was scheduled to debut at the refurbished Arcola Theatre in Dalston, London in March 2013, with Coyle starring alongside his friend and co-founder Rafe Spall in Simon Bent's play "The Associate".


title: Richard Coyle

text: In 2014 he played MacDuff in the Kenneth Branagh and Rob Ashford directed "Macbeth" at the Park Avenue Armory, New York City.


title: Richard Coyle

text: Coyle originated the role of Larry Lamb in James Graham's new play "Ink" which opened at the Almeida Theatre directed by Rupert Goold before transferring to the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End. Coyle stars alongside Bertie Carvel who plays Rupert Murdoch.


title: Richard Coyle

text: From 10 March until 19 November 2022 Coyle starred in the role of Atticus Finch in the West End debut of Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of Harper Lee’s American classic, To Kill a Mockingbird.


title: Richard Coyle

text: Coyle played Keats in the game "Folklore" and has also narrated the following audio books: "At The Mountains of Madness" and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" by H. P. Lovecraft, "Resistance" by Owen Sheers, and the "H.I.V.E." series of novels by Mark Walden.


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: Maria-Hélène Schneider (27 March 1952 – 3 February 2011), known professionally as Maria Schneider, was a French actress. In 1972, at the age of 19, she starred opposite Marlon Brando in "Last Tango in Paris", but being traumatised by a rape scene and hounded by unsavoury publicity negatively affected her subsequent career. Although Michelangelo Antonioni's "The Passenger" (1975) showcased her abilities, a reputation for walking out of films mid-production resulted in her becoming unwelcome in the industry. However, she re-established stability in her personal and professional life in the early 1980s, and became an advocate for equality and improving the conditions actresses worked under. She continued acting in film and TV until a few years before she died in 2011 after a long illness.


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: Schneider was born in Paris to Daniel Gélin, a French actor, and Marie-Christine Schneider from Romania, a model who ran a bookshop in Paris. Gélin was married to actress and producer Danièle Delorme during the affair and his lack of father-level involvement was deeply felt by his daughter. Gélin never recognised Schneider as his daughter, though he publicly acknowledged his paternity in the 1970s. Schneider was first brought up by her mother in a town near the French border with Germany. Eventually, her mother was unwilling to attend to her and entrusted her to a nurse for two years. Maria Schneider later lived for several years with her maternal uncle Michel Schneider and his wife. She reconnected with her biological father when she was sixteen, by visiting him unannounced.


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: Schneider later said that she had met Gélin only "three times". Her cousin Vanessa Schneider wrote, in a biographical book published in 2018, that Maria Schneider had actually been in regular contact with her father during her late teens. It was he who first brought her to a film set. Over the years, Maria Schneider and her biological father met irregularly. She eventually bonded with her half-siblings (who had been unaware of her until after she starred in "Last Tango in Paris"), especially her half-sister Fiona Gélin. Her half-brother Xavier Gélin was also an actor.


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: As a teenager, Schneider loved films, going to the cinema up to four times a week. She left home at age 15 after an argument with her mother and went to Paris, where she made her stage-acting debut that same year. She eked out a living as a film extra and a model. While working on a film set, she met Brigitte Bardot, who having worked with her father on several productions (a father who refused to help his daughter), was "horrified" that the young actress was homeless and offered her a room in her house. Through Bardot, Schneider met people in the film business, including Warren Beatty, who was greatly impressed by Schneider, and introduced her to the William Morris Agency. She was 18 when she had her first break in 1970, appearing in "Madly", starring Alain Delon. This was followed by relatively substantial roles in films such as Roger Vadim's "Hellé" (1972); "The Old Maid" ("La Vieille Fille") (1972) with Philippe Noiret; "Dear Parents" ("Cari genitori") (1973) opposite Florinda Bolkan and Catherine Spaak; and "Dance of Love" (1973), based on a play by Arthur Schnitzler. (The latter film is also known as "Merry-Go-Round", which is distinct from Schneider's 1981 film of the same name directed by Jacques Rivette.)


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: Schneider gained international renown for her performance at the age of 19 in the sexually explicit "Last Tango in Paris" (1972), directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. In a graphic portrayal of anonymous sex with an older man, she performed several nude scenes, including a rape scene that Bertolucci did not reveal to her until just before the filming of it. In 2007, she said:


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: Criminal proceedings were brought against Bertolucci in Italy for the rape scene; the film was sequestered by the censorship commission and all copies were ordered destroyed. An Italian court revoked Bertolucci's civil rights for five years and gave him a four-month suspended prison sentence. In 1978 the Appeals Court of Bologna ordered three copies of the film to be preserved in the national film library with the stipulation that they could not be viewed, until Bertolucci was later able to re-submit it for general distribution with no cuts.


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: Schneider said that due to her experience with the film – and her treatment afterward as a sex symbol rather than as a serious actress – she decided never to work nude again. She started struggling with depression, became a drug addict and made several suicide attempts.


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: She later became a women's rights advocate, in particular fighting for more female film directors, more respect for female actors, and better representation of women in film and media.


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: In 1975, Schneider was cast opposite Jack Nicholson in the well-received Michelangelo Antonioni film "The Passenger", which remains one of the highlights of her career, and was the personal favorite of the actress. That same year, Schneider also starred in René Clément's final movie, the Hitchcockian thriller "", in which, according to Schneider, the director actually wanted the actress for the villainous role; yet, when Antonioni screened "The Passenger" for him, Clément decided that Schneider would be ideal for the heroine. The picture, produced by Carlo Ponti (as with "The Passenger" and "Dear Parents") and also featuring Robert Vaughn, Vic Morrow, and Sydne Rome, went largely unnoticed by the public and critics alike.


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: During the '70s, Schneider traveled (including to the Hopi Reservation and Navajo Nation) and lived in various parts of Europe, including Venice, Paris, and London. After "The Passenger" and "Wanted: Babysitter", Schneider settled in Los Angeles for a year, looking around for film opportunities and being offered roles in Hollywood movies such as "Black Sunday" (1977) as a Palestinian guerilla terrorist, which she turned down based on what she perceived to be poor quality material. She signed up with renowned talent agent and producer Paul Kohner, and several movies were considered, but ultimately little came of this. Work became difficult for her to find, as she had become uninsurable.


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: Moving back to Europe, Schneider was asked by director Tinto Brass to play Drusilla, the incestuous sister of a notorious Roman emperor, opposite "A Clockwork Orange" star Malcolm McDowell, in the infamous, pornographic, multi-million dollar "Penthouse" production of "Caligula"; Schneider refused to perform nude or do graphic sex scenes, and was replaced mid-production with Teresa Ann Savoy, who had appeared in the director's previous film "Salon Kitty".


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: Around the same time, Schneider agreed to star in Luis Buñuel's "That Obscure Object of Desire" (1977), and showed up on set, yet argued with the filmmaker over how her role would be portrayed in light of Schneider's growing concern regarding the depiction of women in cinema , and because of excessive nudity. Schneider ultimately dropped out, and Buñuel made the creative, unusual decision to replace her with not one but two actresses for the same role: Carole Bouquet and Ángela Molina. Schneider was also asked by Bertolucci to appear in his 1976 film "1900", but either turned him down or was fired. She was asked to play Mary, mother of Jesus in Franco Zeffirelli's 1979 television miniseries "Jesus of Nazareth"; Schneider said she did not feel right for the part, though later regretted missing out on this opportunity, and instead eventually appeared in Zeffirelli's 1996 film "Jane Eyre" in a brief appearance as Bertha Mason.


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: For the rest of the 1970s, Schneider opted to star in small-budgeted, independent European productions, such as the little-seen Swiss period piece "Violanta" (1976, with a young Gérard Depardieu), and three consciously feministic works: the Italian production "I Belong to Me" ("Io Sono Mia") (1978, with Stefania Sandrelli); the graphic, disturbing "Memoirs of a French Whore" (French title: "La Dérobade") (1978, alongside Miou-Miou, and for which Schneider was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 1980 5th César Awards); and the lesbian Dutch drama "A Woman Like Eve", directed by Nouchka van Brakel, where Schneider plays the bohemian love interest of conflicted Monique van de Ven who is married to and has children with Peter Faber.


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: Towards the end of the decade, famed arthouse director Jacques Rivette met Schneider at a cafe on the Champs-Elysées and asked her what kind of movie she'd like to make with him, to which Schneider replied "a thriller"; Rivette then asked which actor she'd like to star opposite, and she suggested her friend Joe Dallesandro, renowned for his association with Andy Warhol and leading performances in Paul Morrissey's films. The result was the vague, symbolic crime drama "Merry-Go-Round", a troubled production that Schneider and Rivette, both overcome by ill health and personal issues, eventually completed, and was finally released in 1981 to mediocre reviews.


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: The 1980s were a much quieter period for Schneider, both personally and professionally. Following issues with multiple drug addictions (including cocaine, LSD, and heroin) and a suicide attempt in the '70s (in the looming shadow of "Last Tango in Paris", which friend and one-time girlfriend of Marlon Brando, Esther Anderson, said "ruined [Maria's] life"), Schneider once and for all overcame these problems by the early '80s - which she accredited to her "angel", which may have been life-partner Maria Pia "Almadio" (or, according to some sources, "Crapanzano"). The beginning of the decade saw the actress appearing in a campy Belgian vampire comedy with Louise Fletcher, "Mama Dracula" (1980), which received universally negative reviews from critics. The same year, she performed alongside Klaus Kinski in the French thriller "Hate" ("Haine").


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: 1981 saw Schneider in "Peacetime in Paris", a Yugoslavian picture set in the French capital, which follows a documentarian researching the history of Nazism in Paris; there he meets and falls in love with Schneider's mysterious character, who helps him out on his quest. The picture won a Special Prize at the 12th Moscow International Film Festival, and also featured Schneider's father, Daniel Gélin, in a supporting role as a taxi driver (none of his scenes, however, are shared with Maria.)


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: In 1982, she offered performances in two comedies, the Italian "Looking for Jesus" ("Cercasi Gesù"), with Fernando Rey, and the French "Stray Bullets" ("Balles perdues"). Starting from 1984, Schneider began appearing more regularly in European television movies and shows, such as 1985's "A Song for Europe" (or "A Crime of Honour") with a young David Suchet of "Agatha Christie's Poirot" fame, while doing supporting roles in cinematic turns like the Japanese production of "The Princess & the Photographer" (1984).


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: Towards the end of the 1980s, Schneider had substantial roles in the French thriller "Résidence surveillée" (1987) and the post-apocalyptic surrealistic comedy "Bunker Palace Hôtel" (1989) with three other legends of French cinema: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Carole Bouquet, and Jean-Pierre Léaud (the latter of which was Schneider's obsessive filmmaker fiancé in "Last Tango in Paris".)


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: In 1974, Schneider came out as bisexual. In early 1976, she abandoned the film set of "Caligula" (reportedly due to its pornographic content, saying "I am an actress, not a prostitute!") and checked herself into a mental hospital in Rome for several days to be with her lover, photographer Joan Townsend. This, coupled with her refusal to perform nude, led to Schneider's dismissal from the film. The 1970s were turbulent years for Schneider, marked by drug addiction, overdoses, and a suicide attempt. Schneider said that she disliked the instant fame accorded to her from "Last Tango in Paris". She suffered abuse and began taking drugs.


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: Schneider died of breast cancer on 3 February 2011 at age 58. Her funeral was held on 10 February 2011 at the Church of Saint-Roch, Paris, attended by actors, directors, and producers in French cinema such as Dominique Besnehard, Bertrand Blier, Christine Boisson, Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon, and Andréa Ferreol, her partner Maria Pia Almadio, half-siblings Fiona and Manuel Gélin, and her uncle Georges Schneider. Delon read a tribute from Brigitte Bardot. Schneider was cremated afterwards at Père Lachaise crematorium, and her ashes were to be scattered at sea at the foot of the in Biarritz, according to her last wishes.


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: In 2001, Schneider was the guest of honor at the 23rd Festival Créteil Films de Femmes. In a master class at the festival, she called film "a tracing of memory", and said that women must be recognized as actors and directors. She also brought attention to the importance of assisting senior French actors who become unemployed and impoverished. Schneider was chosen the same year as vice-president of , an organization in Paris that supports senior French actors and directors. According to Schneider, Marcel Carné, director of "Children of Paradise" (1945) and one of the most important directors of the late 1930s, would have died in poverty but for La Roue Tourne supporting him for the last 10 years of his life.


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: On 1 July 2010, Schneider was awarded the medal of Chevalier, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, for her contributions to the arts by Minister of Culture and Communication, Frédéric Mitterrand. He had acted with her in Jacques Rivette's film, "Merry-Go-Round" (1981).


title: Maria Schneider (actress)

text: After Schneider's death, Patti Smith released a song on her 2012 album "Banga" called "Maria", which was dedicated both to the actress and nostalgic memories of the 1970s.


title: Possessor (film)

text: Possessor is a 2020 science fiction psychological horror film written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg. It stars Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott, with Rossif Sutherland, Tuppence Middleton, Sean Bean, and Jennifer Jason Leigh in supporting roles. Riseborough portrays an assassin who performs her assignments through possessing the bodies of other individuals, but finds herself fighting to control the body of her current host (Abbott).


title: Possessor (film)

text: The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2020, and was released in the United States and Canada on October 2, 2020, by Neon and Elevation Pictures, while Signature Entertainment distributed the United Kingdom release on November 27, 2020. It received positive reviews, with praise for its originality and Riseborough and Abbott's performances.


title: Possessor (film)

text: In an alternate 2008, Tasya Vos is an assassin who takes control of others' bodies to carry out her hits. Through an implant installed in the unwitting host's brain, Vos can use a special machine to insert her consciousness into their minds. She returns to her own body by forcing the host to commit suicide at the end of each job.


title: Possessor (film)

text: Due to the amount of time she spends imitating other people, Vos struggles with increasing detachment from her own identity and cannot fully separate her work from her interactions with her husband, Michael, and son, Ira. She "practices" assuming her normal persona the same way she practices impersonating her hosts. Thoughts of violence haunt her during ordinary domestic life, such as when putting Ira to bed and having sex with Michael.


title: Possessor (film)

text: Vos' handler, retired assassin Girder, is critical of her desire to remain connected to her family and expresses the belief that Vos would be a better killer without personal attachments. In a debriefing session meant to reconnect her with her real identity, Vos sorts through a series of objects associated with personal memories and pauses on a butterfly that she pinned and framed as a child. She tells Girder she feels guilty for killing it.


title: Possessor (film)

text: Despite her fragile mental state and fatigue with her work, Vos agrees to perform a major hit on wealthy CEO John Parse and his daughter, Ava, by possessing Ava's fiancé, Colin Tate. The hit is only a partial success as Ava dies, but not Parse. Vos attempts to flee the scene by forcing Tate to shoot himself, but discovers she cannot make him pull the trigger.


title: Possessor (film)

text: Tate instead stabs himself in the skull in an act of rebellion. This damages the implant, and Vos discovers she cannot leave Tate's body or overpower his will. Tate, regaining control, does not know why he killed his girlfriend or why he has begun to experience false, fragmented memories of another person's — Vos' — life.


title: Possessor (film)

text: The traumatized and disoriented Tate flees from the crime scene to his friend Reeta's apartment. He kills Reeta while struggling with dissociative memories of the hit on Parse and Ava. Eddie, another employee from Vos's company, arrives at the apartment to help Vos regain control and complete Tate's suicide. The attempt fails. Vos is still unable to make Tate kill himself. Instead, he becomes aware of her presence inside his body. His consciousness overpowers hers in a psychic confrontation, giving him access to memories of her husband, child and home. He kills Eddie during their internal battle.


title: Possessor (film)

text: Tate then goes to Vos' home and holds her husband at gunpoint, demanding to know what she did to him. Vos appears and goads Tate into killing Michael so that she can be freed from her personal attachments. When Michael knocks the gun from Tate's hand, Tate kills him with a meat cleaver. Moments later, Ira stabs Tate in the throat, finally killing him. Tate uses his last moments to fatally shoot Ira, though it is clear that Vos is in control.


title: Possessor (film)

text: Vos returns to her own body and discovers Girder had taken control of Ira to end her struggle with Tate. With Ira and Michael both dead, she is now free of all human attachments, just like Girder wanted.


title: Possessor (film)

text: In another debriefing, Vos sorts through the same personal objects from the beginning of the film. She handles the butterfly again, but does not express any guilt for killing it. Girder smiles and replies, "Very good."


title: Possessor (film)

text: In May 2018, it was announced Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott had joined the cast of the film, with Brandon Cronenberg directing from a screenplay he wrote. Fraser Ash, Niv Fichman, Kevin Krikst, and Andrew Starke will produce the film under their Rhombus Media and Rook Films banners. Telefilm Canada will produce the film, while Elevation Pictures will distribute in Canada. In February 2019, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Stacy Martin and Sean Bean joined the cast of the film. In May 2019, Tuppence Middleton joined the cast of the film, replacing Martin.


title: Possessor (film)

text: In November 2018, Well Go USA Entertainment acquired distribution rights to the film. The film later had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2020. Shortly after, Neon acquired distribution rights to the film, with Well Go USA only handling the film's home media release. It was released in the United States and Canada on October 2, 2020. The film was released in the United Kingdom on November 27, 2020, by Signature Entertainment.


title: Possessor (film)

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, of 224 critic ratings are positive for "Possessor", and the average rating is . The website's consensus reads, "Further refining his provocative vision, writer-director Brandon Cronenberg uses "Possessor"s potentially over-the-top premise as a delivery mechanism for stylishly disturbing thrills." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 72 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Possessor (film)

text: The film received a positive review by David Sims in "The Atlantic", who wrote: "Cronenberg isn't just looking to provoke with blood and guts -- like all good dystopian fiction, "Possessor" offers disturbing and timely observations about the world we already live in." It was a "New York Times" Critic's Pick, with Glenn Kenny praising the film's formal sophistication.


title: Possessor (film)

text: The film's opening sequence was singled out for praise, particularly Gabrielle Graham's performance as Holly in the sequence. David Ehrlich from IndieWire called it "a coldly compelling prologue"; and Wendy Ide from "Screen Daily" agreed: "In a memorable cameo role in the film’s opening, Gabrielle Graham also makes an impact."


title: Possessor (film)

text: Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting gave the film a score of four-and-a-half out of five, writing: "Like dad David Cronenberg, Brandon Cronenberg has a unique way of testing the boundaries of comfort and exploring the human mind and body in squeamish fashion." John DeFore of "The Hollywood Reporter" praised the film's direction, visuals, as well as its performances, and special effects. Rob Hunter of Film School Rejects gave the film a positive review, writing: "While "Possessor" retains his family's love of body horror and morally misused electronics it also manages an engrossing pace, engaging characters, unrelentingly brutal violence, erect penises, a must-own Halloween mask, a mean-spirited Sean Bean, one hell of an ending, and more... All of it, though, is fantastically and cruelly unforgettable." Chris Evangelista of "Slashfilm" gave the film ten out of ten, writing: "Bathed in blood and gore, and unrelentingly aggressive, Brandon Cronenberg‘s Possessor is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. It is a singular work – one so ghastly, so unique, and so brutal that it will awe some and disgust others."


title: Possessor (film)

text: JoBlo.com's Chris Bumbray gave the film a score of eight out of ten, stating that the film "recalls many of his father David Cronenberg's previous works", Bunbray further praised Abbott and Riseborough's performances, as well as similar praise towards the film's visual style. David Ehrlich from IndieWire also gave the film a grade of "B−", praising Cronenberg's direction as well as the film's cinematography, visuals, and performances, while also stating it did not fully realize its potential.


title: Possessor (film)

text: "Possessor" won the awards for Best Feature Length Film and Best Direction at the Sitges Film Festival in 2020. It was also given the Grand Prize at the 2021 Gérardmer Film Festival, where Jim Williams won for Original Score. The film received three nominations at the inaugural Critics' Choice Super Awards in the Science Fiction/Fantasy category, for Best Movie, Best Actor, and Best Actress. It was named to the Toronto International Film Festival's year-end Canada's Top Ten list for feature films.


title: The Masked Singer (American season 3)

text: The third season of the American television series "The Masked Singer" premiered on Fox on February 2, 2020, as the Super Bowl LIV lead-out program, and concluded on May 20, 2020. The season was won by singer/TV personality Kandi Burruss as "Night Angel", with singer Jesse McCartney finishing second as "Turtle", and rapper Bow Wow placing third as "Frog".


title: The Masked Singer (American season 3)

text: The third season featured 18 new costumes. In addition to creating more mobility within the costumes, Toybina described the season's style focus as "more fashion-forward and modern" compared to the superhero and experimental feel of the first and second seasons. A fan favorite costume from the first season, Monster, was reimagined as a female (Miss Monster) to create a "fun and outgoing" costume that kids would enjoy, while White Tiger was designed to resemble an Egyptian warrior "god of all gods."


title: The Masked Singer (American season 3)

text: The series's production crew had to work out better voice modulation routines as they had found fans of the show were able to remove the modulation and identify the speaking from previous seasons. Further, passionate fans of the show had been able to work out identities of the singers from early clue packages, so more difficult clue packages were created for the celebrities in the season. Filming occurred from December 19, 2019, to February 28, 2020.


title: The Masked Singer (American season 3)

text: Nick Cannon, singer-songwriter Robin Thicke, television personality Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg, actor and comedian Ken Jeong, and recording artist Nicole Scherzinger returned for their third season as host and panelists.


title: The Masked Singer (American season 3)

text: Guest panelists included Jamie Foxx in the first episode, Jason Biggs in the second episode, Leah Remini in the third episode, Gabriel Iglesias in the fifth episode, season one winner, T-Pain, in the sixth episode, Joel McHale in the eighth episode, Will Arnett in the ninth episode, Yvette Nicole Brown in the eleventh episode, Sharon Osbourne in the twelfth episode, Gordon Ramsay in the thirteenth episode, Jeff Dye in the fourteenth episode, and Jay Pharoah in the fifteenth episode.


title: The Masked Singer (American season 3)

text: During the season, eighteen contestants competed. The competitors were said to have a combined 69 Grammy nominations, 88 gold records, 11 Super Bowl appearances, three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, hundreds of tattoos, and one title in the Guinness Book of World Records.


title: The Masked Singer (American season 3)

text: The first nine episodes featured the contestants broken into three groups, A, B and C; across three episodes, the remaining contestants in the group performed and the lowest-voted contestant forced to unmask themselves. The tenth episode saw the remaining nine contestants compete. The lowest-voted contestant from each group was put to a final vote to determine the contestant to be unmasked. For the eleventh and twelfth episodes, the eight contestants were split into two groups of four, and within that, two pairings. The lowest-voted contestant of each pairing in the group of four performed in a "smackdown" for a final vote to determine who would be unmasked. For the next three episodes, one of the remaining six contestants was eliminated each week, and the top three contestants competed in the finale episode.


title: The Masked Singer (American season 3)

text: The third season premiered as the Super Bowl LIV lead-out program and was viewed by over 27.3million people—by far the series' most watched episode. While the broadcast was watched by more than the previous lead-out, "The World's Best" (22.2million), and Fox's most recent lead-out, 2017's "" (17.6million), it was lower than the viewership of "This Is Us" in 2018 (27million) and far lower than "The Voice" in 2012 (37.6million). During the latter half of the season which aired during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the series—like others—experienced viewership and 18–49 rating gains of 10–15percent compared to the episodes that aired before the outbreak. Excluding the post-Super Bowl premiere, the two-hour April1 episode was the most watched since the first season's finale. Some, however, considered this increase unexpected due to the popularity of stripped-down performances during the that aired at the same time. A rival television executive said "if you had to predict which show was going to do well when the Living Room Concert and all that began, "Masked Singer" would be one of the last you'd choose." The season was watched by 25 percent more viewers and received a 25 percent higher 18–49 rating average than the second—the largest season-over-season increases of all television series broadcast during the 2019–20 television season. Among the more than 130 series aired, "The Masked Singer" was one of nine to increase in both figures, and one of only two to increase in both by 10 percent or more.


title: Michael Nouri

text: Michael Nouri (born December 9, 1945) is an American screen and stage actor. He is best known for his television roles, including Dr. Neil Roberts on "The O.C.", Phil Grey on "Damages", Caleb Cortlandt on "All My Children", Eli David in "NCIS", and Bob Schwartz on "Yellowstone". He is also known for his starring roles in the films "Flashdance" (1983) and "The Hidden" (1987), and has appeared in several Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, including the original production of "Victor/Victoria". He is a Saturn Award and Daytime Emmy Award nominee.


title: Michael Nouri

text: Nouri was born in Washington D.C. to Gloria (née Montgomery) and Edmond Nouri. Edmond was an Iraqi immigrant from Baghdad who arrived in the United States on a Georgetown University scholarship, enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II, and became a writer for "Stars and Stripes" and "The New Yorker".


title: Michael Nouri

text: Nouri grew up in New York City and Alpine, New Jersey. At age 14, after repeatedly getting into fights at school, he was transferred to an all-boys boarding school in Connecticut, Avon Old Farms School, where he became student-body president, and decided to be an actor after starring in a Gilbert and Sullivan play. He attended Rollins College and Emerson College, worked as a waiter, then landed his first role on Broadway in 1967. He was briefly a student under Prem Rawat and was involved in his three-day festival Millennium '73.


title: Michael Nouri

text: After starring in an off-Broadway production of "The Crucible", Nouri landed his first Broadway role in "Forty Carats", which ran for two years. He made his film debut in 1969, with an uncredited role in "Goodbye, Columbus". He appeared on several television soap operas, and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for his role as Steve Kaslow on "Search for Tomorrow". He portrayed Lucky Luciano in the miniseries "The Gangster Chronicles" and its theatrically released feature film "Gangster Wars". In 1979, he appeared in the episode "The Curse of Dracula" of the series "Cliffhangers".


title: Michael Nouri

text: In 1983, he had a starring role as Nick Hurley in the romantic drama "Flashdance". Despite mixed reviews, the film was one of the highest-grossing films of 1983, and was nominated for several top awards, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song.


title: Michael Nouri

text: Nouri has appeared in numerous television series and television films. He starred opposite Kyle MacLachlan in the horror film "The Hidden". He starred on the short-lived series "Bay City Blues" and "Downtown", and on the sitcom "Love & War". He starred in the Broadway production of the musical "Victor/Victoria" as King Marchan, opposite Julie Andrews. He appeared in three separate entries of "Law & Order", each time in different roles. He had recurring roles on the series "The O.C.", "Damages", "NCIS", and "Army Wives". He returned to soap operas with a year-long stint on "All My Children". More recently, he had a recurring role on the series "Yellowstone" for three seasons.


title: Michael Nouri

text: Nouri has been married and divorced twice. His first marriage was to Lynn Goldsmith and his second marriage was to Vicki Light. He has two daughters, Hannah and Jennifer. He is an ambassador of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society as a result of one of his ex-wives being affected by the condition.


title: Sand cat

text: The sand cat (Felis margarita) is a small wild cat that inhabits sandy and stony deserts far from water sources. With its sandy to light grey fur, it is well camouflaged in a desert environment. Its head-and-body length ranges from with a long tail. Its short ears are set low on the sides of the head, aiding detection of prey moving underground. The long hair covering the soles of its paws insulates its pads against the extremely hot and cold temperatures in deserts.


title: Sand cat

text: The first sand cat known to science was discovered in the Algerian Sahara and described in 1858. To date, it has been recorded in several disjunct locations in Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Niger, Chad, Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East. In Central Asia, it was first recorded in the Karakum Desert in 1925. The large gap between these two regions of its global range was partially closed in 1948, when a sand cat skin was found in an oasis of the Rub' al Khali in Oman. It is discontinuously distributed in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East. In the early 1970s, sand cats were caught in southwestern Pakistan and exported to zoos worldwide. Due to its wide distribution and large population, it is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.


title: Sand cat

text: The sand cat usually rests in underground dens during the day and hunts at night. It moves on average at night in search of small rodents and birds. It also kills and consumes venomous snakes. In spring, the female gives birth to two to three kittens, which become sexually mature around the age of one year. The sand cat's ecological requirements are still poorly understood, as only a few in-depth studies targeting wild sand cat populations have been conducted.


title: Sand cat

text: "Felis margarita" was the scientific name proposed by Victor Loche in 1858 who first described a sand cat specimen found in the area of "Négonça" in the northern Algerian Sahara. This holotype specimen appears to have been lost. The species was named after the French General Jean Auguste Margueritte.


title: Sand cat

text: In 1974, "F. m. margarita", "F. m. thinobia" and "F. m. scheffeli" were temporarily recognized as valid taxa. At the time, it was considered possible that sand cats eventually recorded in Afghanistan and Iran might constitute distinct subspecies.


title: Sand cat

text: In 2005, "F. m. margarita", "F. m. thinobia", "F. m. scheffeli" and "F. m. harrisoni" were recognised as valid taxa by W. Chris Wozencraft, who considered "F. m. meinertzhageni" and "F. m. aïrensis" synonyms of the nominate subspecies "F. m. margarita".


title: Sand cat

text: The Cat Classification Task Force of the Cat Specialist Group reviewed the existing information and in 2017 recognized only two subspecies based on morphological differences, namely:


title: Sand cat

text: Analysis of mitochondrial DNA of 47 individuals from across the sand cat's range showed that their haplotypes differed only by one to three base pair mutations. This low degree of genetic differentiation between the African and Asian sand cats indicates that the Sinai Peninsula may have been a barrier to gene flow.


title: Sand cat

text: Phylogenetic analysis of the nuclear DNA in tissue samples from all Felidae species revealed that the evolutionary radiation of the Felidae began in Asia in the Miocene around . Analysis of mitochondrial DNA of all Felidae species indicates a radiation at around .


title: Sand cat

text: The sand cat is part of an evolutionary lineage that is estimated to have genetically diverged from the common ancestor of the "Felis" species around , based on analysis of their nuclear DNA. Analysis of their mitochondrial DNA indicates a genetic divergence of the "Felis" species at around . Both models agree that the jungle cat ("F. chaus") was the first "Felis" species that diverged, followed by the black-footed cat ("F. nigripes") and then the sand cat.


title: Sand cat

text: It migrated into Africa, possibly during Pleistocene glaciation events. Migration was likely facilitated by extended periods of low sea levels between continents.


title: Sand cat

text: A fossil jaw and other skeletal remains of a sand cat were excavated in a Late Pleistocene cave in El Harhoura located near Temara in Morocco.