title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: Although visually similar to Rare's previous games, such as "Donkey Kong 64" and "Banjo-Kazooie", "Conker's Bad Fur Day" was designed for mature audiences and features graphic violence, alcohol and tobacco use, profanity, vulgar humour, fourth wall breaks and pop culture references. Development lasted four years, with concepts originating during the development of "Killer Instinct Gold" in 1996. The game, intended for a family audience, was initially titled "Twelve Tales: Conker 64" and was set for release in late 1998. The game was remade into an adult-oriented product after it received criticism for its kid-friendly tone and resemblance to "Banjo-Kazooie" during E3 1998.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: "Conker's Bad Fur Day" was released in March 2001, following an advertising campaign that targeted college males and fratboys. It received critical acclaim, with praise directed at its humour, sound, visuals, and gameplay. However, the game sold well below expectations due to limited advertising and a release towards the end of the Nintendo 64's life cycle, but has since developed a cult following. A remake, "", was released for the Xbox in 2005, while the original version was included as part of the "Rare Replay" compilation for Xbox One in 2015.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: "Conker's Bad Fur Day" is a platform game, its latest sections featuring elements of shooters. The player controls Conker the Squirrel through a series of three-dimensional levels. The game features an overworld where players can transition from one level to another, although many are initially blocked off until Conker earns a certain amount of cash. Each level is an enclosed area in which the player can freely explore to find tasks to do. The gameplay mostly relies on figuring out a way to help other characters by completing a linear sequence of challenges. These challenges may include defeating a boss, solving puzzles, gathering objects, and racing opponents, among others. The result is always a cash reward, which aids access to other areas in the overworld.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: As compared to the player characters in Rare's previous platform games "Banjo-Kazooie" and "Donkey Kong 64", Conker's abilities are simpler. The player can run, jump, and smack enemies with a frying pan. Conker can also swim underwater for a limited period of time, climb ladders or ropes, and push objects. To regain lost health, Conker can eat pieces of "anti-gravity" Chocolate that are scattered throughout the levels. The game employs "context sensitive" pads that allow Conker to gain different, temporary abilities when pressing the "B" button atop them. For instance, in the beginning of the game, by pressing the B button on the first pad he encounters, Conker drinks some Alka-Seltzer to wipe out his hangover, at which point players can proceed forward. Some pads can turn Conker into an anvil to slam into the ground, while others pull out his shotgun, blow torch, throwing knives, and slingshot. They also serve to inform players of what needs to be done next.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: The game includes a multiplayer mode where up to four players can compete against each other in seven different game types: Beach, Raptor, Heist, War, Tank, Race and Deathmatch. In Beach, a team of players must go up through a beach and into a waiting escape vehicle, while another must stop them by firing at them from fixed positions. Raptor involves a team of players controlling raptors to feed a baby dinosaur while another controlling cavemen who have to steal dinosaur eggs. Heist engrosses players in the robbery of a bank, where the goal is to retrieve a cash bag from the centre of the level and run with it to the team's vault without being damaged. War can either be a traditional capture the flag mode or Total War, where players have to get the other team's gas canister and use it to release a chemical gas that annihilates the enemy. In Tank, players fight using tanks and chemical canisters that release a lethal gas. Race is a racing mode which provides two variations of the same course. Items can be acquired and used against opponents. Finally, Deathmatch is a standard deathmatch mode where players fight against each other in shooting style from a third-person perspective. Players can set multiple options for each game, such as score limit, number of lives, and inclusion of computer-controlled bots.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: "Conker's Bad Fur Day" is set in the Fairy Panther King's Kingdom. Windy is the game's main hub with entrances to most other sections: the farm Barn Boys, the poo-filled Sloprano, Heist, the horror-themed Spooky, Bats Tower, and It's War. Only one other section requires entering from an area besides Windy: Uga Buga, which must be entered under the bottom of Sloprano by paying the location's weasel guards $1,000. Obtaining access to the entrance requires going through a sewer pipe only accessible after defeating a big, opera-singing chunk of poo, named the "Great Mighty Poo". Windy has a beetle-populated area entirely filled with fecal matter, consisting of a big Poo Mountain and a Poo Cabin and a river next to it. Poo balls are required to enter the Sloprano section within the mountain, and Bats Tower which is only opened once the water in the river is drained. Poo balls are available at Poo Cabin, accessible after completing Barn Boys. The dung beetle near the entrance offers Conker poo balls if he can make the farm cows excrement in the pasture. Doing so involves Conker on the Poo Cabin's pasture turning on a big spigot to activate the prune juice (which gives the cows diarrhea), and using a bull to open gates for the cows to get out, as well as to kill the cows once each one finishes defecating. $2,110 is needed to pay Mr. Barrel to propel down a slope and break a barrier to the entrance of Spooky.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: Conker, an anthropomorphic red squirrel, has a night at a bar named The Cock and Plucker, where he parties with the other attendants that are drafted to fight a war; he contacts his girlfriend Berri to inform her he will be at her place, but a bit late. He leaves the bar and moves into the rainy outside drunk with blurry vision and a lack of balance, making it difficult for him to maneuver. He falls asleep in an area far away from Berri's place way, waking up next to a farm consisting of a scarecrow named Birdy, of whom he asks for help. Birdy teaches Conker about the game's context-sensitive button mechanic. A context-sensitive area gives him a pill that re-energizes Conker and makes him able to move actively again. The various moves and button commands for Conker's movements and action, such as jumping, flying, and his frying pan attack, also come back to his memory. Meanwhile, the Panther King, ruler of the land that Conker is lost in, finds that his throne's side table is missing one of its legs and orders his servant, Professor Von Kriplespac, to solve the problem. When Von Kriplespac suggests the use of a red squirrel as the fourth leg of his table, the Panther King sends his minions to capture one.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: Conker enters Windy, where he saves the hive of Queen Bee from the Nasty Wasps twice; in both situations she uses the hive to shoot the wasps to death. He then goes to Barn Boys. There, he first helps a box get off of another box by feeding a mouse cheese to the point where he explodes.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: When Conker enters Spooky, he finds Death (the reaper responsible for Conker's multiple lives), who provides him a shotgun and informs him one of his ancestors is undead, rich, and living in a mansion around the area. He wonders around looking for the ancestor's mansion, hoping to inherit the wealth, and shoots several squirrel zombies along the way. He finds the house and meets its owner, 300-year-old vampire Count Batula, who provides the red squirrel a dinner and wine, as well as shows him around the property. During Conker's feast, Batula tells of his war-crusading forefather, as well as the fact that there used to be a union between the squirrels and panthers when he was alive. A raid of the property by the surrounding villagers occurs, not for the first time, and interrupts the conversation. After Batula drinks a bit of Conker's blood, figuring out Conker is his "great, great, great, great, great grandson", and turns himself and Conker into a bat, he gives Conker a task: to catch the villagers and place them into a grinder for Batula to eat their blood. Conker is successful, but he feeds Batula so much that his body weight becomes too big for the rope he's latching on hold, causing him to fall in the grinder.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: Conker turns back into his normal squirrel form and leaves with the inheritance, entering Windy at nightfall, when a new entrance for It's War appears. Conker walks into the war zone, where it is the squirrels against the Tediz. Although he is not in the proper attire for the situation and did not sign up beforehand, the General accepts him after Conker gets a fallen plane out of the way of the squirrel team's route. The team arrives at the beach, the location of the Tediz' base location. With the context-sensitive button equipping him with machine guns, Conker breaks in the warehouse and traverses, fighting several Tediz, including scalpel-throwing scientists, in the process. He encounters a squirrel soldier about to be shot to death by the Tediz. Conker kills the Tediz and saves the squirrel, who is named Rodent and met Conker before. Rodent is the only fight wearing experiment number G7224, a titanium laminate suit that protects him from any weapon, and joins Conker as his "Operation Squirrel Shield". Conker, pulling a switch that's in a secret area filled with toxic chemicals and using a tank, enters the underground area Submariner. There, she finds a seemingly little girl, but turns out to be a puppet on the hand of a bigger Tedi machine. Conker successfully defeats the big robot Tedi, but not before the little girl turns on a self-destruct mechanism that will blow up the entire war zone in four minutes in 30 seconds. All of the remaining squirrels escape in time, while the Tediz' base explodes.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: Conker returns to Windy, only to find parts of the scenery and a windmill on top of a mountain no longer there.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: When Conker finds Berri, Don Weaso, head of the Weasel Mafia, enlists their help in robbing a bank. After entering the vault, Conker and Berri find that the bank scene was an elaborate trap set by the Panther King to capture Conker. Berri steps forward to resolve the situation, but is shot and killed by Weaso on the Panther King's orders. The Panther King suddenly begins having chest pains and calls for Von Kriplespac, who takes Conker aside, and they both watch as a Xenomorph-like creature bursts out of the Panther King's chest, killing him instantly. Von Kriplespac explains that the creature, which he names "Heinrich", is one of his creations and that he had planned to use this opportunity to kill the Panther King and escape his captivity. He then reveals that they are inside a spaceship, which he activates and takes into low orbit. From there, he instructs the creature to attack and kill Conker as revenge for destroying the Tediz, which were also his creations. Conker opens an airlock, expelling Kriplespac and the Panther King and Berri's corpses into space, and then battles Heinrich with the aid of a robotic suit. After Conker fails to successfully throw the creature out the airlock, Heinrich lunges at Conker, who braces for his seemingly inevitable death, but the game then suddenly freezes, and Conker expresses disbelief that Rare did not test the game properly. Asking for the programmers' assistance, the programmers give Conker a katana and teleport him to the Panther King's throne room, where he decapitates Heinrich with ease. Conker is then crowned the new king of the land.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: As the King, Conker realizes that he should have brought Berri back to life when he negotiated with the programmers. He then calls out to bring her back to life, only to realize that the programmers have already left. Characters that Conker first encountered begin hailing him, despite his animosity towards them. Conker gives a closing monologue, in which he discusses appreciating what one already has instead of always wanting more, stating that "the grass is always greener, and you don't really know what it is you have until it's gone". After the credits roll, Conker is seen back at The Cock and Plucker, where he was seen at the start of the game. As it begins to storm outside, he drunkenly exits the bar, leaving in the opposite direction he took previously.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: Following the success of Nintendo's "Super Mario 64" (1996), a "barn" at Rare began conceiving and designing a similar un-named "generic 3D platform adventure" during development of "Killer Instinct Gold" (1996). Tim Stamper had planned the game to star a cute squirrel mascot named Conker from the get-go, in order to have the widest possible appeal. The staff of "Project Dream" saw the yet-to-be-named platform game during the creation of its engine, and was inspired to change "Dream" from an RPG to a platforming game in the visual and gameplay style of the "Killer Instinct" team's project. Both then-upcoming Rare titles were first announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June 1997, receiving the names "Banjo-Kazooie" and "Conker's Quest", the first two games presented by Nintendo at the event.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: "N64.com" reported "Conker's Quest" being a "Super Mario 64"-like game that "make[s] gamers feel as if they're playing through Disney's movie version of "Bambi"", where "Conker collects nuts and battles against giants in huge landscapes and is joined by a female squirrel who assists him as he makes his way through the game". The source reported the cameras being in an unfinished state and journalists unable to differentiate between it and "Banjo-Kazooie", although liking "Banjo" far more. A writer for "Ultra Game Players" also noted it looking similar to "Banjo" and summarized that "Conker has to collect nuts, find new power-ups (in the form of different hats - kind of like "Wario Land") and generally negotiate colorful 3D landscapes". He called its gameplay "competent and even addictive" and praised the visuals for "upping the ante on [Rare's] previous efforts, where the clipping is better, the textures more varied and the overall look of the game is expansive and colorful". However, he suggested its "disturbing" cuteness, while gaining Nintendo an audience of younger players, would turn off older players and criticized the gameplay of "Conker" and "Banjo" for being not original enough from "Mario 64".


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: At the 1998 Expo, it was revealed that the game's title was changed to "Twelve Tales: Conker 64" and the release was set for fall 1998. "64" magazine suspected the name change was to prevent consumers from confusing it with another Nintendo 64 title, "Quest 64" (1998). "Twelve Tales" would have had a single-player mode and two-multiplayer modes. In single-player, the player could play as either Conker or Berri, where Conker's segments would be "arcade-style platformer[s]" involving "action and speed" and Berri's would be puzzle stages depicting her controlling her dino companion (as well as feeding him) so that he can protect her from enemies. The two multi-player modes would have been a co-operative two-player mode where the players play as Conker and an owl, and a split-screen four-player battle mode where players attack each other with acorns. Conker, unlike "Bad Fur Day", moved on four legs in "Twelve Tales".


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: Coverage upon the game's 1998 E3 appearance was generally positive, with focal points including the graphics, characters, content, and the characters changing emotions in reaction to the environment. "Total 64" found the visuals better than Nintendo's , "utilising the N64's hi-res mode and displaying some gorgeous textures"; it additionally praised its "highly imaginative" four-player mode and Berri's levels. Journalist Andy McDermott appreciated the huge amount of content, in particular the multi-player modes, the two different gameplay styles in the single-player mode and the fact that Conker learns new moves and attacks as the game progresses. Coverage was not without criticisms, however; McDermott disliked its "Americanized" writing that consisted of "colonial-style comments" and the "infuriatingly happy music", while "Next Generation" called its premise of a squirrel collecting acorns in "stunningly unimaginative forests" a rip-off of Ocean Software's 16-bit platform game "Mr. Nutz" (1993). The most frequent skepticism was its kid-friendliness, particularly its consumer interest after the release of others family-friendly platformers like "Banjo-Kazooie" (1998). All of this concerned Rare, a developer which had a history of making games like "Conker", resulting in a game design overhaul.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: "Conker" was planned to only take two years to make, but fights between workers at the barn delayed the process. Artist Don Murphy found the developing game not very good, and software engineer Chris Marlow said that "there was an awful lot of content and there were lots of fun ideas, but it just really wasn't gelling as a finished game". Additionally, the market for "Mario 64"-style platformers was saturated, and another game of that caliber developed by Rare, "Banjo-Kazooie", was already completed and released to critical and commercial success. For the team, either something changed or the team had to split into other barns working on new projects, cancelling "Conker". Multiple delays and a lack of updates led the press to believe that "Twelve Tales" had been quietly cancelled.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: Chris Seavor, who began working on the project as an artist, then pitched to Rare leaders Tim and Chris Stamper an idea he had since during the "Twelve Tales" phase, a day in the life game named "Bad Fur Day" about Conker trying to help others but causing more problems in doing so. In addition to having a narrative to give the titular character a personality, Seavor wanted to make the game "edgy, in terms of its violence"; the Stampers loved the idea and moved Seavor up to project lead. Seavor's first action following the meeting was changing the task "Wasps and the Queen Bee". Tim Stamper conceived its premise of wasps stealing a beehive, but Seavor noticed no established reasons or punchline behind it. He decided to end it with the beehive having guns shooting at the wasps; the founders loved it and directed the team to "make more of that". This set the formula for later missions: an introduction, interaction of the mission, and then an "extreme punchline" cutscene as reward for completing the task. It also changed the style of a game to a platformer starring a cute mascot character in an incredibly raunchy world. According to the developers: "We already had the main character (although he was eventually remodeled) and a good deal of code already written, so the best option seemed to be to change the game's direction. Mature humor was a key element".


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: Rare clarified publicly in January 2000 that the game was "still being worked on by a full team and with the same level of dedication as when it was first announced".


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: In 2000, "Conker" was retooled into "Conker's Bad Fur Day" with a large amount of scatological humour.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: All of "Conker's Bad Fur Day"s staff, including the animators, programmers, and writers, worked in a liberated, non-planned, and intuition-based manner; the cutscene dialogue and gameplay design in particular was spontaneously conceived between the developers with a rough notion of the level's story. Out of all the game's dialogue, only the intro was scripted. The developers' ideas were tracked with notepads, as they would describe them verbally while taking notes of what they heard from others. Shawn Pile wrote a language that allowed for changes in the game’s structures to be done in a few seconds, whereas without it, it would have taken "two-and-a-half to three minutes" to make a change.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: The beginning, middle and end of the story was done all at the same time, with events written to happen later in the story leading to the inclusion of elements earlier. In order to fit three save files in four kilobytes of SRAM space, the game was broken up into lengthy chapters. Seavor's focus on the game, as project lead, was making sure the narrative complemented the gameplay and mechanics: "Just doing a 'thing' like hitting something with a brick is far more engaging if there's a motivation behind it to disguise the binary nature of the act". For example, the developers originally planned Conker to attack with a baseball bat; this was changed to a frying pan because it justified the use of a comic sound effect of a metal object hitting something.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: When designing levels, the developers were originally more focused on the gameplay than the comedy; as development went on, they noticed being less focused on gameplay and more on the comedic premises made the levels come together easier. This especially became evident with the use of film parodies, which Seavor decided on after adding a "Terminator" (1984) reference in the barn yard scene. The parodies helped the developers come up with ideas for music, sound, design, and gameplay. For example, the spoofing of "The Matrix" (1999) in a lobby chase scene gave composer and audio engineer Robin Beanland ideas for interactive music, where shooting bullets would fade the channels of the upbeat music into channels playing something more downtempo.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: The "Star Wars" series, "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992), and "Apocalypse Now" (1979) are among the films spoofed. "Conker's Bad Fur Day" begins with a shot-by-shot recreation of the intro of "A Clockwork Orange" (1971). A joke in one of Conker's conversations with the catfish references "Trading Places" (1983). The sequences involving the shark-bulldog Brute parodies "Jaws" (1975), particularly featuring music cues similar to that of the film. The final boss fight references "Aliens" (1986), as an alien rips out of the Panther King's chest and Conker fights it in a powersuit.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: "Conker's Bad Fur Day" also satirizes conventions of adventure and platform games, occasionally by breaking the fourth wall. Conker makes fun of how menial his missions are, and the villain's motivation of getting a table leg pokes at the shallow premises of other games. Burt, a metal box in the "Barn Boys" chapter that stands in place for most of the level, is only there to open a gate, which pokes fun at characters in other games only there to be communicated with for the player to achieve other tasks. The explanation for why floating chocolate bars exist makes fun of floating collect-able items in other games where why they float is not established. The death sequences, where Conker encounters a skeleton named Gregg, was an attempt to make logical the concept of multiple lives. The bosses also take four hits to kill, a twist on the typical three in other video games.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: Certain story elements, although not spoofing material, took influence from the works of Monty Python. "The Milk Thing", a running gag where the Panther King has to be resisted from masturbating, was inspired by a joke just as "trivial and banal" in a skit on "Monty Python's Flying Circus" (1969–1974) titled "Blancmange Playing Tennis", while a cow was based on the feminine guard character in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975). The fart noise segment of "Uncle Fucka" from "" (1999) was the inspiration for a level theme (named "Poo")'s arrangement consisting of fart noises. Some characters were based on real-life people the developers encountered. Birdy the scarecrow was based on a bearded Rare developer, and Greg the Grimm Reaper was named after Gregg Mayles. The bee king was inspired by a "really scruffy" man Seavor encountered while walking on a street in Nottingham who screamed at him, "don’t speak to me like that, in my country I am a king."


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: The developers heavily analyzed "Super Mario 64" in making "Conker's Bad Fur Day", especially when it came to the camera. The staff noticed it, along with "Prince of Persia 3D" (1999), used "fixed views" that could not be controlled by the player. To make the game look cinematic, Rare went with having a fixed camera that was very zoomed out. To increase the number of simultaneous light sources to four, one programmer spent four months deciphering and rewriting the Nintendo-supplied Japanese-commented microcode for the Nintendo 64's Reality Coprocessor, while another microcoded the support for MP3, reverberation, and Dolby Pro Logic surround sound.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: The length of all cutscenes combined total around two hours. Marlow programmed a "cutscene editor" that allowed for separately-made animations, audio files, visual effects, and camera setups to easily be compiled together for cutscenes. However, making cutscenes was still a lengthy process. The editor lacked a feature to preview only bits of cutscenes, meaning they had to be played in their entirety before they could be altered again; this made several small changes (such as text copyedits and adjustments to the timing of speech bubbles to match camera angle changes) very tedious.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: The testing for Nintendo's Seal of Quality was strict; although the game was tested in the United States for five days with no bugs noticed, it was 24 hours in the Japan unit's three-day test that they noticed a problem of a cutscene in the first level not being triggered. Initially, Gregg's introductory scene (which is triggered the first time the player dies) was not to be "forced" in the "Spooky" level where the reaper appears again, as the programmers assumed no player would get to it without dying; a tester successfully did, so in the final game, the death scene plays once Conker reaches the stage.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: Maya was used to create 3D animations. Beanland and animator Louise Ridgeway estimated 8.7 seconds and two-to-three cycles of animation were completed per day. When it came to animation, small details were a priority, such as the fire demons reacting if a swear word was entered into the cheat code menu and the camera shaking and triggering a sound effect if hit by an object. This method sometimes led to tedious tasks, such as having to animate each of several bricks on a bridge separately. Some animations, such as drunk character movements, required research. Animating Conker's juggling required Ridgeway being taught by David Rose how to juggle.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: Conker has 2,000 animations, including 15 idle animations. Lots of work was spent on Conker’s tail, animating it for several instances when he rotates, stands, twitches, and moves around; in an attempt to simplify this process, the tail was thought of as a "bag of air". For animating objects attached to parts of Conker's model, Marlow coded as if the objects were constrained to joints different from the parts coming in contact with the objects; Conker's juggling balls moved based on his right hip, the Game Boy was attached to his foot, and the frying pan was connected to his wrist.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: For Conker's peeing attack, only the back of him was animated without his front completed; this was because if the front of Conker peeing was animated and seen, it would have given "Conker's Bad Fur Day" an AO ("Adults Only") rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board. Conker's cheeks were originally animated to puff during his whistling animation, but it broke during testing, and by the time it was fixed it was too late to program it into the final product.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: The inclusion of voice acting, in addition to the adult content, was another method by Seavor of differentiating "Conker's Bad Fur Day" in the Nintendo 64 marketplace; the idea initially garnered skepticism from a few staff members who argued it was "too much work", but Seavor explained that for Beanland, it "was like laying down a challenge, one we both accepted and relished". For making each mission scenario, voice recording came first; Beanland recalled one session lasting an hour. Seavor described the voice recording process and him and Beanland "having some fun with stupid voices". The vocal track meant "Conker's Bad Fur Day" required a 64 MB cartridge, one of the few Nintendo 64 games that size. Audio made up around 40 MB to 48 MB of all cartridge space.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: Except for The Great Mighty Poo, all of the male characters, including Conker, and two female characters were voiced by Seavor, with all other female characters voiced by the animator Louise Ridgeway. Routines of The Jerky Boys influence the voice direction, such as the New York accent on the Nasty Wasps. For Berri, Ridgeway was directed to use an American accent. She recalled in 2015 that she'd "never been anywhere in my life; I’d just flown over from Dublin", so "all I could think was to add 'like' so often". Seavor and Beanland had difficulty coming up with voices for the Ugas; they initially tried to make them sound like the cavemen in "At the Earth's Core" (1976), but were unsuccessful and ultimately decided to do random grunts and fast word sayings.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: For music tracks where the instruments playing change depending on location, volumes of different MIDI channels were programmed to go up or down; one MIDI file was limited to 16 channels, so in order to have 32 MIDI channels for as much variation as possible, audio software engineer Mike Currington conceived having two MIDI files sync up with each other. With the intro to It's War replicating the chaotic audio of "Saving Private Ryan", its bullet hit sounds were programmed as MIDI notes with much panning, taking advantage of the game's Surround Sound.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: The Great Mighty Poo was performed by Marlow, who had experience in opera; recorded in a single afternoon, "Sloprano", the song the character sings, was written by Seavor and composer Robin Beanland specifically to incorporate Marlow's operatic talents. "Sloprano" was also originally going to have the sweetcorn be backing singers, with Ridgeway and another animator Aisling Duddy voicing them; this was rejected. The only "Twelve Tales" piece included in "Conker's Bad Fur Day" was the one where Conker is peeing on his enemies.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: Although Seavor remarked that "pretty much 99.9% of the game content remained" writing-wise, "Conker's Bad Fur Day" was around 20% longer than the final product when it came to planned gameplay designs and concepts, with material cut due to a lack of time to incorporate it. A few areas that made it into the game were initially modeled differently, such as the water tube in the shark-bulldog area Conker swims in chasing a wad of money. Some offensive content was cut by Nintendo, including cutscenes with "Pokémon" and a joke at the expense of the Ku Klux Klan. The introduction of Conker slashing the N64 logo in half was also initially disapproved by Nintendo; the developers in 2013 recalled that Rare founder Tim Stamper may have met with Nintendo to resolve the conflict. Scrapped characters included four in the cheese field of the barn (Camembert, Ninja Cheese, Cheese Crate, and King Dick Cheesy III) and six "Drugrats" (Roach, Cornsacks, Floury, Doughy, Pooey, and Mrs. Roach).


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: In the final game, a climbing area in the Poo Cabin includes a hole containing a piece of chocolate that's unattainable due to being protected by bars; this was meant to be the entrance of a section that was never finished, and Seavor deliberately left the hole to annoy players. The "Yeehaa!" section, which involve three cows and a bull Conker rides named Bugger Lugs, was going to be a bigger level; Conker would have flown in the sky by blowing up a female cow into fetish outfits and turning her into a balloon, dropping bricks on other cows that exploded into fecal matter. Another scrapped mission was a return to the shark-bulldog area with the re-appearance of Brute and Marvin the farting mouse, who exploded in a previous section; Conker would have killed the dogfish by feeding the mouse to Brute, then going to a context-sensitive area to shoot the fish as Marvin was about to explode, in reference to the shark's demise in "Jaws".


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: A scrapped conclusion, named the "Lock-Up Ending", would have occurred when Conker beat the final boss and died at the same time. Everything would become static except for Conker, who would fall to the ground after briefly being frozen during a dive, and the programmers would be heard arguing about the bug; Conker would then make a deal with the programmers to remove the boss in exchange for not telling "Tony" about it. Animation for a set of outtakes in the closing credits a la the end credits of "Toy Story 2" (1999) was started, but could not be completed in time. One of the bloopers was the "Mad Pitchfork" scene where Conker became annoyed and had his voice turn "primadonna". Another was for a scene not in the actual game, where the teddy bears had to play dead but were not in character when the sequence started, which, according to a developer, was to make fun of a tester. A rejected post-credits finale would have had Berri still alive, but as a slave to king Conker.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: "Conker's Bad Fur Day" received an M (Mature) rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board for reasons of "animated violence", "mature sexual themes", and "strong language", becoming the second Nintendo-published M-rated title after another Rare-developed game, "Perfect Dark" (2000). Nintendo's move into adult titles was to keep the interest of consumers who played the company's titles when they were younger; Nintendo of America spokeswoman Perrin Kaplan explained that the "kids who were 6 when they played the first Mario game are now 26". Less than a year before "Conker"s release, 18-year-olds and over made up 58% of console players, those in the 35+ age group 21%. This demographic change was due to the success of adult-oriented PlayStation franchises like "Tomb Raider" and "Resident Evil", and it meant it would not be enough for Nintendo to compete with Sony entirely on children's properties.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: Because Nintendo was known for its family-friendly games (in 2000, around three quarters of revenue were from sales of child-friendly video games), "Conker's Bad Fur Day" was the subject of controversy. According to Rare, "Nintendo initially had concerns regarding this issue, because kids might confuse the product as being aimed at them". The "Los Angeles Times" claimed "some parents used to Nintendo’s family-friendly games are horrified", reporting a mother in Schererville, Indiana who bought the game for her 15-year-old son: "This is disgusting, sophomoric humor, and I’m disappointed in Nintendo. It’s like Disney releasing pornography". Nintendo of America declined to acknowledge the game in its "Nintendo Power" magazine (although other official Nintendo publications outside the USA did cover the game), and copies of the magazine's strategy guides were packaged in black polybags with warnings similar to the one on the cover art imposed onto them. KB Toys, which specialised in toys and video games for children, also refused to sell the game.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: Starcom's promotional campaign for "Conker's Bad Fur Day" targeted college males and fratboys, advertising located in bars, colleges, late-night television, and adult magazines. For the "Conker" campaign, Starcom won two International Advertising Festival awards in the categories of use of mixed media and best campaign directed towards adult males; according to judges, it was also one of the top three contenders for Grand Prix, although Crispin Porter + Bogusky's Florida Anti-Tobacco Pilot Programme won it.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: The campaign included a video ad named "Girl Talk" (on the website dubbed "69 Uncensored Seconds") that depicts a half-naked girl and a squirrel in bed with each other after a night of partying. For several months, urinal mats were placed in bathrooms of places in major cities, which included the URL for the game's website; Starcom associate media director Gina Broderick said: "Like Conker, our target's focus in on his social life. Being in bars is absolutely being in their element, and because urinating is part of game play, it made total sense".


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: From March to April 5, 2001, "Playboy" magazine ran its first ever video-game-related tour, a set of "Conker's Bad Fur Day" "Beach"-mode multiplayer competition parties at 20 colleges across the United States, hosted by Miss March 2001 Miriam Gonzalez. Winners of the contests were reward with green Nintendo 64 consoles, copies of "Conker's Bad Fur Day", and Nintendo and "Playboy" merchandise, while the player with the highest score of all competitions won trips to two "Playmate of the Year" parties at Playboy Mansion. Spring break parties were also held at Club La Vela and South Padre Island's Louie's Backyard, the main events being "King of Tail" tattoo contests with free giveaways of various products on the side, such as Conker condoms, copies of "Conker's Little Black Book" (a collection of "Conker's Bad Fur Day" print ads), and t-shirts with "Got Tail?" on the front and the game's logo on the back.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: Three "coloring book" advertisements were printed in magazines like "Maxim". One consists of Conker and a woman next to a tree and around acorns on the ground, with the squirrel's head into her breasts; the tagline is, "Conker is a squirrel. Squirrels hunt for acorns. Can you help Conker find some acorns?" One depicted Conker peeing on flames with the tagline "Help Conker stop the bullies. Use your Yellow crayon" and another depicted him laying his head in a toilet with the text "Shhh! Conker is taking a nap".


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: "Conker's Bad Fur Day" was first released on 5 March 2001 in North America. In Europe, the game was published and distributed by THQ on 13 April 2001, after Nintendo of Europe declined to publish it. It was the highest-selling mature-rated video game in its first month of release, and its website garnered 300,000 unique visitors in the first two weeks on the market. However, "Conker's Bad Fur Day" was not a commercial success, selling only about 55,000 copies within its first month of release. Potential reasons included its prohibitively high cost, advertisements exclusive to the older audience, and release near the end of the Nintendo 64's commercial life. As of February 2020, "Conker's Bad Fur Day" is the fourth rarest Nintendo 64 title, with copies selling on bidding sites for around $500 to $700; its value was affected by its unusual genre, poor initial sales, costly 64MB cartridges, being released near the end of the Nintendo 64's lifespan, and several leftover copies purchased upon "Live & Reloaded"s release.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: "Conker's Bad Fur Day" received critical acclaim, with an aggregate review score of 92 out of 100 at Metacritic based on reviews from 19 critics. Claimed "IGN" editor Matt Casamassina in his 9.9/10 review, "not only is it quite possibly the most hilarious title ever created, but the selection of crude jokes, over-the-top violence and sexual content featured is only one-upped by the game's remarkably deep, well-paced level design, tightly knitted control mechanics, beautiful graphics and amazing sound quality."


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: Many publications and websites declared the graphics were the best on the Nintendo 64. Chris Slate of "Next Generation" wrote the title has the usual Rare qualities of "top-notch graphics" and "incredible worlds". "Official Nintendo Magazine" described even the gross-out levels as "drop dead gorgeous", and exclaimed the "amazing detail on the brilliant film spoof stages take our beloved N64 to new heights of visual pleasure". Critics noted that the game featured a number of technical effects that were uncommon at the time, especially for a Nintendo 64 game, such as "varied and crisp" textures, dynamic shadowing, coloured lighting, large areas with a long draw distance, no distance fog, detailed facial animations, lip syncing, and individually rendered fingers on some characters. "GameSpot" went so far as to say that the game "makes other Nintendo 64 games look like 16-bit software". Casamassina praised the detailed 3D worlds, "fantastic" texture work, and cute character designs. He remarked that "Conker himself is equipped with an in-game facial animation system that realistically portrays his different moods as he travels the lands. When he's scared, he looks it, and when he's pissed off players will actually be able to see his teeth showing in a frown". Reviewers noted occasional frame rate drops, but most agreed they did not interfere with the gameplay.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: The game's audio and diverse vocal track were widely praised. Critics credited the voice acting for its different accents and styles, with "cleverly lewd" scripts and "dead-on" movie spoofs; "Nintendojo" noted certain voices sounding identical to film characters being spoofed. The soundtrack was praised for sounding clear for a cartridge title, its use of arrangement variation based on player location, and rich and creative instrumentation. Reviewers also highlighted the high number of sound effects, such as Conker's footsteps changing sound effects step-by-step, and how they benefitted the settings.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: Most reviewers agreed the jokes were clever, funny, and well-delivered, and "GamePro" felt the "wildly diverse" weird missions were "sublime satirical genius" making up for the linear gameplay. However, some criticized the humor for being juvenile, misogynistic, and over-filled with profanity and bodily humor, and Slate felt the shock effect would go away within an hour. Seth Stevenson of "Slate" magazine called it an example of the lack of actual "mature" console games for "socially adjusted, non-outcasted adults who enjoy videogames".


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: "Official Nintendo Magazine" described "Conker's Bad Fur Day" as "a monster sized game. Either you’ll die laughing well before the end or it will take you months of dedicated gameplay to reach it". They later ranked the game 97th for the Top 100 Nintendo Games of All Time.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: The gameplay was highlighted for its unconventional context-sensitive pads. Casamassina noted that they "help keep the action shifting, refreshing, and always exciting", and credited Rare for reducing the number of items to collect. "GameRevolution"s Johnny Liu positively described the gameplay as "a staccato flow between gameplay and cutscenes"; while there's only one path to traverse the game's big world, the enjoyment came in thinking what to do next. Slate wrote its diverse set of "bizarrely creative scenarios" motivated gamers; he was, however, bothered by the game's lack of clear direction on where to go, which resulted in long-length wonders that only ended in stumbling upon the next required area, and felt that many puzzles lack logical coherence and depended too much on trial and error. "Edge" remarked that the pads make "Conker's Bad Fur Day" "little more than a procession of barely connected and puerile minigames".


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: Criticism was also targeted at the game's erratic camera system, simplistic action, short length and linear nature. "N64 Magazine" felt that camera system does not allow players to properly judge their position within their surroundings and "GameSpot" remarked that it can get caught on objects or refuse to obey commands. The "San Francisco Chronicle" reported the camera being occasionally immovable and getting into frame objects that block the player's view, making worse an experience where the character is "difficult to control, especially when required to jump onto small areas".


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: The multiplayer modes garnered mixed responses. Casamassina and "Gameplanet" considered them inventive and praised the numerous options, adding longevity to the product. On the other hand, "GameSpot" stated that most modes "fail to stand the test of time", and Liu, although stating they were "a welcome bonus", considered them to be "filler", also criticizing that the responsiveness and control setup of the single-player mode were not suitable for the fast pace of the multi-player battles.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: "Conker's Bad Fur Day" was awarded Nintendo 64 Game of the Month by "IGN". It won best sound at the 2001 BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards, Best Platform Game at the "GameSpot" Best and Worst of 2001 awards (where it also was nominated in the Best Story and Best Nintendo 64 Game categories, losing to "Final Fantasy X" and "Paper Mario" respectively) and Best Anthropomorphic Game at the furry media award ceremony Ursa Major Awards. It was also nominated for "Best Console Action/Adventure Game" and "Outstanding Achievement in Character or Story Development" by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, losing to "" (2001) and "Ico" (2001) respectively.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: In later years, "Conker's Bad Fur Day" has been called by professional gaming critics one of the best video games of all-time, one of the greatest Nintendo games, and one of the best Nintendo 64 titles. In "Uproxx"s 2021 list of top 100 Nintendo 64 games based on 250,849 user ratings from various websites, "Conker's Bad Fur Day" came in at number 12. It ranked number six both on a list of Rare games by "Shacknews" (2018) and a ranking of best games featured on "Rare Replay" by Ginx TV. It was also called the first and seventh funniest game by GameTrailers (2009) and "God is a Geek" (2011) respectively. UGO included the game at #3 on their 2010 list of The 11 Weirdest Game Endings, and in 2013 "Gaming Bolt" named the water tube the 64th most challenging level of all video games. Despite its poor sales initially, the game has since enjoyed a cult following due to its unique styling.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: After the release of "Conker's Bad Fur Day", Rare began development of a direct sequel referred to as "Conker's Other Bad Day". Seavor revealed that the game would deal with "Conker's somewhat unsuccessful tenure as King. He spends all the treasured money on beer, parties and hookers. Thrown into prison, Conker is faced with the prospect of execution and the game starts with his escape, ball and chain attached, from the Castle's highest tower". In 2002, however, Rare was purchased by Microsoft, who told them they were not interested in such a project.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: A remake of "Conker's Bad Fur Day", titled "", was ultimately released for the Xbox in 2005 to generally favourable critical reception. Developers noted that it was difficult to port the game to the Xbox system because "Bad Fur Day"s microcoded performance optimisations had been deeply customised for the Nintendo 64 hardware. "Conker: Live & Reloaded" features updated graphics and a multiplayer mode that supports the Xbox Live service. Additionally, some aspects in the single-player mode were adjusted: several minor obscenities within the voice dialogue that are present in the Nintendo 64 game were censored at Microsoft's request, the camera control was refined and improved with a zoom function, and an auto-targeting system was added to the game.


title: Conker's Bad Fur Day

text: After the release of "Live & Reloaded", Rare began work on another game in the "Conker" universe titled "Conker: Gettin' Medieval". The game was to be multiplayer focused and did not feature Conker as a main character, with Rare instead hoping to focus on other characters in the series, but the game was ultimately cancelled. Conker returned in a new episodic campaign for the sandbox game "Project Spark". The campaign, titled "Conker's Big Reunion", is set ten years after the events of "Bad Fur Day" and Seavor reprised his voice roles. The first episode of the campaign was released in April 2015, but the remaining ones were cancelled the following September. "Conker's Bad Fur Day" is also included as part of the "Rare Replay" compilation for Xbox One, marking the original game's first official re-release. The compilation was released on August 4, 2015.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Aryna Siarhiejeŭna Sabalenka (; , "Arina Sergeyevna Sobolenko", born 5 May 1998) is a Belarusian professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 2 in singles and world No. 1 in doubles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Sabalenka has won two Grand Slam doubles titles, the 2019 US Open and the 2021 Australian Open, alongside Elise Mertens. She has won 16 career titles in total, ten in singles and six in doubles.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka was relatively unknown until 2017 when she rose to prominence by leading the Belarus Fed Cup team to a runner-up finish with Aliaksandra Sasnovich, despite both of them being ranked outside the top 75 at the time. Following the 2017 Fed Cup, she began having more success on the WTA Tour, reaching four finals in 2018 and achieving eight top ten victories. Sabalenka continued to excel in singles in 2019 with three titles in China, highlighted by a defense of her Wuhan Open title at the Premier 5 level and by winning the WTA Elite Trophy at the end of the year. She finished both 2018 and 2019 ranked No. 11 in the world in singles. Sabalenka also began playing doubles regularly in 2019. With Mertens as her partner, she completed the Sunshine Double by winning the two Premier Mandatory tournaments in March, the Indian Wells Open and the Miami Open. After the US Open doubles title later in the year, she also qualified for the WTA Finals for the first time. Sabalenka's best results in singles at the Grand Slam tournaments came at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships and 2021 US Open, where she reached the semifinals.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka has a very aggressive style of play, often accumulating high numbers of winners and unforced errors. With her height, she also has a very strong serve when it is in form.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka was born on 5 May 1998 in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Her father Sergey (d. 2019) was a hockey player. Aryna started playing tennis by chance. She said, "One day, my dad was just driving me somewhere in the car, and on the way he saw tennis courts. So he took me to the courts. I really liked it and enjoyed it and that's how it was. That's how it started." She began training at the National Tennis Academy in Minsk when it opened in 2014.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: In 2015, the Belarusian Tennis Federation persuaded Sabalenka and her team to focus on playing low-level professional events instead of junior tournaments, even though she was still eligible to compete at the junior level at the time.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka had a late start on the ITF Junior Circuit, instead competing on the U14 and U16 Tennis Europe tours at a younger age. She did not compete in the main draw of any ITF events until 2013 at the low-level Grade 4 Tallink Cup in Estonia at the age of 15. She ultimately never played in the junior Grand Slam tournaments, or any other high-level Grade A and Grade 1 events. Without the higher point levels from these bigger tournaments, she had a career-high ranking of just 225.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka won her first ITF title in doubles at the lowest-level Grade-5 Alatan Tour Cup in Belarus in late 2013 with compatriot Vera Lapko as her partner. In 2014, she excelled at Grade 4 events. She reached her first singles final at the Estonian Junior Open in June and won her first singles title at the MTV Total Junior Cup in Finland in October. At the end of the season, Sabalenka defended her Alatan Tour Cup doubles title, this time with compatriot Nika Shytkouskaya, and also won the singles title. She only played in one tournament in 2015, the European Junior Championships. As a Grade B1 event, this was the highest level junior tournament she played in. She lost in the second round to top seed Markéta Vondroušová.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka began playing on the ITF Women's Circuit in 2012, even before she competed on the ITF Junior Circuit. Her first five tournaments were in her hometown of Minsk and spread out over two years, but she did not win a main draw match in any of them. She won her first professional match at the very end of 2014 in Istanbul. The following season in October, she won her first two titles in back-to-back weeks in Antalya, both at the $10K level. Sabalenka also won a $25K title the last week of the year. This title put her into the top 300 of the WTA rankings for the first time at the start of 2016. That year, she made her Fed Cup debut in April, losing her only match. She also won her two biggest titles to date at the $50K level. The first in Tianjin put her into the top 200 in May and the second in Toyota in November helped her finish the year ranked at No. 137 in the world.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Despite some early season success in Fed Cup, Sabalenka had a quiet start to the year otherwise. She played in her first WTA Tour main draw in February as a qualifier at the Dubai Open; however, she did not win her first WTA match until Wimbledon in July. In her Grand Slam debut, she again reached the main draw through qualifying and defeated Irina Khromacheva in the opening round. Sabalenka followed up this achievement with another WTA win over No. 34, Lauren Davis, at the Washington Open, the 2016 runner-up and the highest-ranked player she had defeated at the time.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: After losing in qualifying at the US Open, Sabalenka reached her first ever WTA semifinal at the Tashkent Open, defeating third seed and world No. 53, Tatjana Maria, along the way. A few weeks later, she entered the Tianjin Open as the 119th-ranked player in the world, but managed to reach her first WTA final. There, she faced her childhood idol Maria Sharapova, but ultimately lost in two tight sets. With this performance, she rose to No. 76 in the rankings, entering the top 100 for the first time. After losing a tight Fed Cup final to the United States, Sabalenka finished the season by winning the biggest title of her career at the time at the Mumbai Open, a WTA 125 event. The title cemented her at No. 73 at the end of the year.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: After playing relatively few WTA events in 2017, Sabalenka utilized her higher ranking to play exclusively on the WTA Tour in 2018. She reached two quarterfinals to begin the year, but lost her opening-round match at the Australian Open to top-ranked Australian and world No. 18 Ashleigh Barty. She then won her first matches at a Premier tournament with a third-round appearance at the Indian Wells Open before the early-year hard court season came to a close, including a victory over No. 19, Svetlana Kuznetsova.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka began the clay-court season by reaching a second career final at the Ladies Open Lugano, where she finished runner-up to No. 20, Elise Mertens. This success also put her in the top 50 for the first time. However, she did not win another match for the rest of the clay court season, including a first round defeat to No. 22, Kiki Bertens, at the French Open. Sabalenka had stronger results on grass, playing in tune-ups during each of the three weeks before Wimbledon. She made it to the quarterfinals at the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships and the final at the Premier-level Eastbourne International. At the latter event, she won five consecutive three-set matches, including three over top 20 opponents and her first top ten victory against defending champion and world No. 7, Karolína Plíšková. Sabalenka lost the final to world No. 2, Caroline Wozniacki. For the third consecutive Grand Slam event, she went out in the first round at Wimbledon.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: During the North American hardcourt summer season, Sabalenka continued to rise through the rankings. At the two Premier 5 tournaments, she reached the third round at the Canadian Open and the semifinals at the Cincinnati Open. In the former, she avenged her previous loss to world No. 2, Wozniacki, for the biggest win of her career, hitting 64 winners during the match. In the latter, she recorded two more top ten wins over No. 8 Plíšková and No. 5 Caroline Garcia before losing to world No. 1, Simona Halep. Just a week later, Sabalenka won her first WTA title at the Premier-level Connecticut Open with wins over world No. 9, Julia Görges, in the semifinal, and Carla Suárez Navarro in the final. Playing a fourth consecutive week, she closed out this part of the season with her best result at a Grand Slam tournament to date, making it to the fourth round at the US Open. In particular, she upset world No. 5, Petra Kvitová, in the third round before losing to the eventual champion, Naomi Osaka. She was the only player to win a set against Osaka in the tournament.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: After the US Open, Sabalenka earned her first No. 1 seed at the Tournoi de Québec, but lost her opening match. Nonetheless, she followed this up by winning the Premier 5 level Wuhan Open, the biggest title of her career. During the event, she upset No. 6 Elina Svitolina in the second round and did not drop a set in any of her last four matches. The following week, Sabalenka reached the quarterfinals of the China Open, a run that included a win over defending champion and No. 4, Caroline Garcia, for her eighth top-ten victory of the season. This success in China helped her climb to No. 11 in the world. At the end of the season, Sabalenka qualified for the WTA Elite Trophy, where she was grouped with Garcia and Ashleigh Barty. She defeated Barty to open the group, but lost to Garcia in the group's final match. Barty, having defeated Garcia with fewer games lost, advanced out of the group through the tiebreak criteria to end Sabalenka's season. Nonetheless, she was named the WTA Newcomer of the Year for her excellent performance in her first full year on the WTA Tour.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Although Sabalenka once again struggled at the Grand Slam tournaments, she ultimately finished the year with the same year-end ranking as in 2018 on the strength of three titles, all in China. She began the season by winning her third career WTA title at the Shenzhen Open, defeating Alison Riske in the final in a tight three-set match. Due to rain delays in the earlier rounds, she needed to play both the semifinal and the final on the last day of the tournament. However, she could not build on this success in the rest of the first half of the year. Sabalenka lost to 17-year-old Amanda Anisimova in straight sets at both the Australian Open and the French Open in the third and second rounds, respectively. She had been considered the third-leading favourite for the title at the Australian Open. Nonetheless, she made her top-10 debut following the event. Sabalenka fared worse at Wimbledon, losing her opening match to No. 139 Magdaléna Rybáriková. In-between the Grand Slam tournaments, Sabalenka's best result was a semifinal loss to No. 8, Kiki Bertens, at the Premier-level St. Petersburg Trophy in February. She also made the fourth round at the Indian Wells Open. Her best result on clay was a semifinal at the Internationaux de Strasbourg in May.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka had a better second half of the season. In her first tournament following Wimbledon, she finished runner-up to Zheng Saisai at the Silicon Valley Classic, a Premier-level event. She did not perform well at either Premier 5 tournament in August or the US Open, losing in the second round at the last Grand Slam tournament of the year. Sabalenka returned to China following the US Open, and produced three strong results in four events. After a quarterfinal at the Zhengzhou Open, she defended her title at the Premier 5 Wuhan Open. During the event, she defeated No. 8 Kiki Bertens in the third round and No. 1 Ashleigh Barty in the semifinals, her first victory over a current world No. 1 player. She won the final over Alison Riske. At the end of the season, Sabalenka qualified for the WTA Elite Trophy for the second consecutive year. She swept her round-robin group of Maria Sakkari and her doubles partner Elise Mertens. In the knockout rounds, Sabalenka defeated Karolína Muchová and Bertens for her fifth career title, and her third title of the year in China.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka started the year ranked No. 73 in doubles. She began partnering with Elise Mertens in January, when the pair lost to top seeds Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková in the third round of the Australian Open. They had their breakthrough in March at the two Premier Mandatory tournaments. In only their second tournament together, Sabalenka and Mertens won the Indian Wells Open. They defeated three of the top five seeds in the event, including second seeds Tímea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic in the first round and top seeds Krejčíková and Siniaková in the final. The pair matched this success at their next event by winning the Miami Open to complete the Sunshine Double. They defeated three of the top six seeds, including third seeds Hsieh Su-wei and Barbora Strýcová in the second round. They won the final against sixth seeds Samantha Stosur and Zhang Shuai. With these two titles, Sabalenka rose to No. 21 in the world.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka and Mertens continued to partner together throughout the year, entering eleven events before the year-end championships. Whereas Sabalenka did not have much success in the Grand Slam singles events, she produced much better results in doubles. Sabalenka and Mertens reached the semifinals at the French Open, losing to second seeds Babos and Mladenovic. They then reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, losing to third seeds Hsieh and Strýcová. These were Sabalenka's first two appearances in at least the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam event. Sabalenka and Mertens had their best result of the year at the US Open. As the fourth seeds at the event, they made it to the final without having to play another top ten seeded team. In the final, they faced eighth seeds Victoria Azarenka and Ashleigh Barty, the latter of whom had won the title a year earlier with CoCo Vandeweghe. Sabalenka and Mertens defeated Azarenka and Barty in straight sets for their first career Grand Slam title in any discipline. With this title, Sabalenka made her top 10 debut in doubles at No. 6 in the world.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka and Mertens made one more final during the year, finishing runner-up at the Wuhan Open where Sabalenka won the singles title. Their three big titles helped them win the Race to Shenzhen and qualify for the WTA Finals as the top seeds. Before the event, Sabalenka and Mertens moved up to No. 2 and No. 3 in the rankings, respectively, behind only world No. 1, Barbora Strýcová. At the WTA Finals, the pair were placed in a round robin group with third seeds Babos and Mladenovic, fifth seeds Chan Hao-ching and Latisha Chan, as well as eighth seeds Anna-Lena Grönefeld and Demi Schuurs. In their opening match, they were upset by Grönefeld and Schuurs in a match tiebreak. After defeating the Chan sisters, Sabalenka and Mertens lost to Babos and Mladenovic in another match tiebreak and did not advance out of their group.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka continued on from her late season surge by reaching the semifinals in Adelaide. She came from a 3–5 final set deficit against Hsieh Su-wei before sliding past Bernarda Pera and shocking second seed Simona Halep, whom she had never won a set against before, in straight sets. She then lost in straight sets to eventual runner-up Dayana Yastremska. Despite her good start to the season, she was upset by Carla Suárez Navarro in two tie-breakers in the first round of the Australian Open. In doubles she enjoyed moderate success with Mertens reaching the quarterfinals, before losing to the Chan sisters. Her next tournament was the Dubai Tennis Championships where she made the quarterfinals with wins over Maria Sakkari and doubles partner Mertens. There she faced Simona Halep. Despite taking the first set she was unable to repeat her earlier upset falling to the eventual champion in three sets. She rebounded at the Qatar Open, reaching the final with wins over Anett Kontaveit, Maria Sakkari, Zheng Saisai and Svetlana Kuznetsova. In the final, she defeated Petra Kvitová in straight sets to claim her third Premier-5 title. After tennis resumed in August due to COVID-19, she was the second seed in Lexington where she survived Madison Brengle in three sets but then fell in a three set thriller to 16 year old Coco Gauff. Her results continued to disappoint as, seeded fifth, she crashed out in the second round of both Cincinnati and New York to Jessica Pegula and a resurgent Victoria Azarenka. She had moderate success in doubles reaching the quarterfinals of both events. Her results in singles began to improve on clay as she reached the semifinals in Strasbourg and the third round of the French Open losing to Elina Svitolina and Ons Jabeur, respectively. That was Sabalenka's last loss of the season. In Ostrava, she came from 5–2 in the decider down to avenge her Lexington loss to Gauff and lost the first ten games of her quarterfinal match against Sara Sorribes Tormo before winning the next twelve to win. In the final, she avenged her US Open loss to Azarenka, defeating her compatriot in straight sets. She then also took the Linz title by defeating Elise Mertens in the final. This gave Sabalenka the first year-end top-10 finish in her career.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka entered 2021 on a nine-match winning streak, and participated in her first tournament of the year at the Abu Dhabi Open as the fourth seed. She defeated Polona Hercog in straight sets, coming back from a 5–2 deficit in the first set, and then defeated Ajla Tomljanović and Ons Jabeur to reach the quarterfinals, similarly in straight sets. She defeated Elena Rybakina in the quarterfinals, where she dropped her first set of the week, before defeating Maria Sakkari, in straight sets. In the final, Sabalenka defeated first-time finalist Veronika Kudermetova, in straight sets, losing just four games in total. The run to the title at Abu Dhabi extended her winning streak to 15 matches, and catapulted her to a new ranking of No. 7.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka went into the Australian Open looking to make a Grand Slam singles quarterfinal for the first time in her career. She was defeated in the fourth round by 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams in three sets. Sabalenka won the doubles competition with Elise Mertens. By virtue of winning the title, Sabalenka ascended to world No. 1 in the doubles rankings for the first time in her career, on 22 February 2021.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: As defending champion at the Qatar Open in Doha, and after receiving a first-round bye, Sabalenka was defeated in her first match by eventual finalist Garbiñe Muguruza, in three sets. At the Dubai Tennis Championships, in her first tournament since becoming No. 1 in doubles, Sabalenka and Mertens received a bye in the first round and lost their opening match to Jessica Pegula and Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Sabalenka cruised through to the quarterfinals in the singles event, defeating 15th seed Anett Kontaveit along the way, before losing to Muguruza for the second time in as many weeks, again in three sets.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka won the title at the Madrid Open where she faced Ashleigh Barty in the championship match. It was a rematch of the 2021 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix final, two week earlier, as Sabalenka faced her vanquisher, world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty. As a result of her fourth WTA 1000 title, she entered the top 5 rankings in singles at world No. 4.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka and compatriot Victoria Azarenka won the doubles event at the German Open, defeating the top seeded pair of Demi Schuurs and Nicole Melichar.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Seeded second at Wimbledon, Sabalenka reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal and semifinal, defeating 18th seed Elena Rybakina and 21st seed Ons Jabeur in straight sets, respectively. She then lost her semifinal match against Karolina Pliskova in three sets. As a result of her performance at Wimbledon she reached a career-high ranking of world No. 3 in the WTA singles rankings. Sabalenka became the third Belarusian woman to reach the last four of Wimbledon following Natasha Zvereva in 1998 and Victoria Azarenka in 2011 and 2012.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka continued her season at the Canadian Open in Montreal. She reached the semifinals but lost to Karolína Plíšková, in straight sets. She then lost her opening-round match against Paula Badosa at the Cincinnati Open. Despite the loss, Sabalenka reached a career-high ranking of world No. 2.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: At the US Open, Sabalenka reached her second consecutive (and second overall) major semifinal following wins over Danielle Collins, Elise Mertens, and Barbora Krejčíková. In the semifinal, she lost to Leylah Fernandez in three sets.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka began her 2022 season at the 2022 Adelaide International 1 as the second seed. After a first-round bye Sabalenka lost in the second round in straight sets to Kaja Juvan. Sabalenka served 18 double faults to five aces. Next, Sabalenaka received a wildcard to enter the 2022 Adelaide International 2 and was seeded first, but lost her first round to a qualifier, world No. 93 Rebecca Peterson, in three sets. Once again Sabalenka struggled with her serve, recording 21 double faults for the match.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka's serving struggles continued, but she managed to dig out three-set wins against world No. 128 Storm Sanders, No. 100 Wang Xinyu and No. 41 Markéta Vondroušová to advance to the fourth round for the second time in her career. She faced off against giant-killer Kaia Kanepi, who had defeated the 16th seed Angelique Kerber in the first round. Kanepi prevailed in a tight three-set match, which ended in a third set super-tiebreak. Sabalenka managed to save four match points during the match, but also served 15 double faults to Kanepi's four.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: She found some form reaching quarterfinals at the Qatar Open beating Alize Cornet and Jil Teichmann, before losing to the eventual champion Iga Świątek in the semifinals. Following early exits in Indian Wells, Miami and Charleston, she reached her first final of 2022 at the Women’s Stuttgart Open, defeating Bianca Andreescu, world No. 6 Anett Kontaveit and Paula Badosa, the new world No. 2, eventually losing to world No. 1, Świątek, again. Entering as the defending champion at the Madrid Open, Sabalenka was knocked out by Amanda Anisimova in the first round. At the Italian Open, after defeating Zhang Shuai, Amanda Anisimova, and Jessica Pegula, she lost to Świątek in the semifinals for the third time in 2022. At the French Open, Sabalenka lost in the third round to Camila Giorgi in three sets.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka began the grass court season at the Libéma Open as the top seed, where she made the final, losing to Ekaterina Alexandrova. She then entered the German Open as the third seed, but lost in the first round to Veronika Kudermetova. Due to Wimbledon's ruling on Russian and Belarusian players, Sabalenka was banned from participating in the event due to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, cutting her grass season short.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: She opened the US hard court swing in Silicon Valley Classic, losing to Daria Kasatkina in the quarterfinals. She then played the Canadian Open, losing to Coco Gauff in the third round. Her best result since Stuttgart came at Cincinnati Open, where as the sixth seed, she made the semifinals, defeating Anna Kalinskaya, Shelby Rogers, and Zhang Shuai before losing to eventual champion Caroline Garcia in three sets. She then made her best run of the season at the US Open. Seeded sixth, she defeated Catherine Harrison, Kaia Kanepi, Clara Burel, 19th seed Danielle Collins,and 22nd seed & former World No. 1 Karolína Plíšková to reach the semifinals, matching her previous best result from 2021. In her second round match against Kanepi, Sabalenka came back from 6–2, 5–1 down to win in three sets, saving two match points in the process. In the semifinals, she was defeated by World No. 1 Iga Świątek for the fourth time this season.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: At the San Diego Open, Sabalenka defeated Sloane Stephens in three sets before losing to Donna Vekic in the quarterfinals. In receipt of a first-round bye in Guadalajara, she lost to Liudmila Samsonova in the second round. However, she managed to qualify for the WTA Finals for a second straight year. There, she reached the decision, lost to Caroline Garcia, along the way defeating world No. 3 Jessica Pegula and No. 2 Ons Jabeur in the round robin stage, and No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the semifinals. She became the fourth woman to defeat the Top 3 players at the same tournament joining Steffi Graf (1999 Roland Garros), Serena Williams (2002 Miami Open), and Venus Williams (2008 WTA Finals).


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka represented Belarus at the Junior Fed Cup in 2014, with the team finishing in sixth place. She then made her senior Fed Cup debut for Belarus in April 2016, losing a dead rubber doubles match against Russia. Nonetheless, the Belarusian team led by Victoria Azarenka and Aliaksandra Sasnovich won the tie to qualify for the top-tier World Group the following season for the first time in their history.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: The Belarus Fed Cup team made their debut in the World Group and ultimately reached the final, despite being the underdogs in all three ties. Little was expected from the team because they were without their veteran leader Azarenka, who missed the first two ties on maternity leave and the last because of a custody battle. Without her, Belarus was led by Sabalenka and Sasnovich, neither of whom had ever been ranked above No. 76 by the time of the final. However, they did have the advantage of playing all of their ties at home in Minsk.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: The ties in the quarterfinals against the Netherlands in February and the semifinals against Switzerland in April both played out in the same way. While Sabalenka lost her opening matches to their opponents' respective top-ranked players of Kiki Bertens and Timea Bacsinszky, Sasnovich was able to give Belarus a 2–1 lead in each instance. Sabalenka then clinched both ties, with wins over Michaëlla Krajicek and No. 54 Viktorija Golubic respectively. She was only ranked No. 125 at the time of the semifinal, with no career WTA match wins outside of Fed Cup.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: On the opening day of the final against the United States, Sabalenka upset the reigning US Open champion and world No. 13, Sloane Stephens, to level the tie after Sasnovich lost her first rubber to No. 10, CoCo Vandeweghe. The next day began with Sabalenka losing to Vandeweghe, before Sasnovich again leveled the tie by defeating Stephens. Sabalenka and Sasnovich were then selected for the decisive doubles rubber for the Fed Cup crown, but the duo were comprehensively defeated by Vandeweghe and Shelby Rogers.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Despite finishing as runner-up, Belarus's Fed Cup success helped popularize women's tennis in Belarus, and vaulted Sabalenka and Sasnovich into international prominence. Sasnovich said, "When we played the quarterfinals and semifinals in Minsk, a lot of people were coming to see our matches. They finally saw tennis in life, and it’s like a popularization... I want my country to improve even more in tennis, because I think we can have even more from Belarus."


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Belarus was unable to repeat their 2017 Fed Cup success in 2018. Their quarterfinal tie was held in Minsk against Germany. Although Sabalenka won both of her singles rubbers, Sasnovich and Vera Lapko lost each of theirs to set up a decisive doubles rubber. Sabalenka and doubles specialist Lidziya Marozava were selected for the match, with Sabalenka playing on short rest directly after her last singles match. After taking the first set against Anna-Lena Grönefeld and Tatjana Maria, they ultimately lost the rubber and the tie.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Their next tie was again contested in Minsk as part of the World Group Play-offs, with Slovakia competing to take Belarus's place in the World Group the following season. Sabalenka and Sasnovich each split their two singles rubbers, with Sabalenka being upset by Viktória Kužmová. Doubles specialists Lapko and Marozava were chosen for the final rubber and the pair won the match to keep Belarus in the World Group for 2019.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: In the 2019 Fed Cup, Belarus were drawn against Germany in the quarterfinals for the second consecutive year. After Sasnovich won the opening rubber against Maria, Sabalenka won both of her singles rubbers against Andrea Petkovic and Laura Siegemund to clinch the tie. They advanced to face Australia in the semifinals. Only two players from each team participated: Sabalenka and Azarenka for Belarus, and Ashleigh Barty and Samantha Stosur for Australia. Both Sabalenka and Azarenka defeated Stosur, but lost to Barty. In the decisive doubles rubber, Barty and Stosur won in three sets to eliminate Belarus.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka is a baseliner. She has a powerful serve, and equally powerful groundstrokes, and her game is based around hitting groundstroke winners. She has said "I hope all my shots can be strong, but my serve, I feel is the best." Sabalenka's strong serve, which can reach 194 km/h (124 mph), allows her to serve a large number of aces; in 2020, she ranked third of all players in terms of aces served, at 165. Her serve is inconsistent, however, leading to a high double fault count; she served 166 double faults in 2020, the most of any player. Sabalenka notably suffered from the yips from the 2021 WTA Finals and into 2022, serving 152 double faults in 11 matches, an average of 14 double faults a match. Her second serve began to show improvements from March 2022, following training with Mark Philippoussis, with Sabalenka serving no double faults in her match against Jil Teichmann at Doha; this was her first match where she served no double faults since 2018. Overall, Sabalenka served 440 double faults in 2022. Her groundstrokes are often hit very flat, and are hit with relentless pace and depth. Tennis broadcaster and former professional player Mary Carillo praised the power in her style of play along with her fierce attitude, describing her game as "big babe tennis personified". Although Sabalenka has the ability to hit a lot of winners, they are often accompanied by a lot of unforced errors. In her first career top ten victory against Karolína Plíšková, she hit 40 winners and 39 unforced errors. Her second career top ten victory against Caroline Wozniacki was similar, featuring 64 winners and 54 unforced errors. Her coach Dmitry Tursunov credited her improvement in the summer of 2018 on developing better shot selection. He said, "The major thing is she stopped trying [to] hit a winner with every shot."


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka prefers playing on grass and hard courts. She commented, "This year [in 2017] I played for the first time on grass courts [during Wimbledon]. And I really liked it. I enjoyed my game on the grass courts, the feeling of grass, that's nice. I think my game is suited for grass and for hard courts." On clay, she made both the singles and doubles finals at the 2018 Ladies Open Lugano.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka frequently accompanies her shots with loud grunting. She said, "Honestly, I don’t even hear myself when I am playing." However, she expressed her hopes that her grunting has no disturbance on her opponents. At the Australian Open in 2018, the home crowd mocked her habit in a match against Australian Ashleigh Barty.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka had worked with Khalil Ibrahimov for two years up until early 2018. At this point, she began working with former Swedish professional tennis players Magnus Norman and Magnus Tideman. Dmitry Tursunov became her primary coach in time for the grass court season in 2018. Sabalenka briefly split with Tursunov after the 2019 US Open. Although they reunited later in the year, she made the split permanent at the end of the season. Sabalenka briefly worked with Dieter Kindlmann before switching coaches to her longtime hitting partner and compatriot Anton Dubrov.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka has been endorsed by Nike for apparel and shoes since the start of her professional career. She is also endorsed by Wilson, specifically using the Wilson Blade range of racquets.


title: Aryna Sabalenka

text: Sabalenka has a tiger tattoo on her left arm. This tattoo has earned her the nickname "The Tiger", which she has used to refer to herself. Sabalenka has studied at the Belarusian State University in a sports-related program. Her tennis idols growing up were Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova.


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: Michael J. Pollard (born Michael John Pollack Jr.; May 30, 1939 – November 20, 2019) was an American actor. He is best known for his role as C.W. Moss in the film "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967), which earned him critical acclaim along with nominations for an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and two Golden Globe Awards.


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: Pollard was born in Passaic, New Jersey, and brought up in the nearby North Jersey communities of Garfield and Clifton. He was the son of Sonia V. (née Dubanowich) and Michael John Pollack, a bar manager. His parents were both of Polish descent. His mother was born in New York and his father was born in New Jersey. Pollard's father supported his wife and Michael Jr. by working 60 hours a week as a barman at O'Rourke's Tap Room. Pollard attended Montclair Academy (now Montclair Kimberley Academy) and Actors Studio in New York.


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: Pollard was married to actress Beth Howland, with whom he had one daughter, Holly Howland. He had a son, Axel Emmett Pollard, from a second marriage to Annie Tolstoy.


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: Pollard had his earliest screen roles in television, with multiple appearances in programs broadcast during 1959. He had two roles in episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents": "Appointment at Eleven", a minor part as a shoeshine boy and as herpetologist Hansel Eidelpfeiffer in "Anniversary Gift". Pollard also portrayed Homer McCauley, the dramatic lead, in a television adaptation of William Saroyan's novel "The Human Comedy", narrated by Burgess Meredith, and broadcast as an episode of the "DuPont Show of the Month". That same year Pollard appeared in David Hedison's 16-segment NBC espionage TV series "Five Fingers" in the episode "The Unknown Town".


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: Later that same year, Pollard appeared in episode five of CBS's "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" as Jerome Krebs, the first cousin of Maynard G. Krebs, played by Bob Denver, who in real life had been drafted into the United States Army. Pollard's character was to have been a replacement for Maynard, but disappeared when Denver was classified 4-F and was able to return to the series.


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: Pollard created the non-singing role of Hugo Peabody in the original Broadway production of "Bye Bye Birdie". In 1962, Pollard appeared in the short-lived Robert Young comedy/drama series "Window on Main Street" in the episode "The Boy Who Got Too Many Laughs". That same year he was cast in the role of Virgil, Deputy Barney Fife's socially awkward but talented cousin, on CBS's "The Andy Griffith Show".


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: In 1963, he appeared on an episode of ABC's "Channing", a drama about college life starring Jason Evers and Henry Jones. That same year Pollard played the role of Digby Popham in the Walt Disney family musical "Summer Magic", opposite Hayley Mills. He was cast too as Danny Larkin in the 1963 episode "Tell Me When You Get to Heaven" of the ABC drama, "Going My Way", starring Gene Kelly as a Roman Catholic priest in New York City.


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: Pollard played the role of Cyrus in a 1964 episode of the CBS western series "Gunsmoke", titled "Journey for Three". That year he also appeared as Ted Mooney, son of Mr. Mooney, on "The Lucy Show". In 1965, he played the role of "Jingles" in the episode "The Princess and the Paupers" on the ABC crime drama, "Honey West", starring Anne Francis.


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: In 1966, Pollard starred in the role of Bernie in the popular NBC espionage series "I Spy" (the episode titled "Trial by Treehouse", aired October 19, 1966), alongside series regulars Bill Cosby and Robert Culp, and guest stars Cicely Tyson and Raymond St. Jacques. Also in 1966, Pollard played the (uncredited) role of Stanley, the runny-nosed airplane mechanic, in "The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming".


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: Pollard was known for his short stature, which facilitated his getting youthful roles into his thirties. One such role was in the original "" series as the teenage leader of an all-child planet in the episode "" (1966):Michael J. Pollard is smarmily effective as, in essence, a cult leader for the kids, and the kids themselves manage a perfect blend of creepy, scary, and silly. The cry of “bonk-bonk on the head” is amusing right up until twenty kids pile onto Kirk and he emerges with blood seeping down the sides of his head.


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: He also appeared in a first-season episode of Irwin Allen's "Lost In Space" as a nameless Peter Pan-like boy who lives in the dimension behind all mirrors ("The Magic Mirror").


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: In 1967, he played the supporting role of C. W. Moss in Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde", alongside Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, and Estelle Parsons, for which he received Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor and won a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles. The role led to his joke candidacy in 1968 for President of the United States, complete with a campaign song: "Michael J. Pollard for President", recorded by DJ and recording artist Jim Lowe, best known for the 1950s hit "The Green Door". (The record features Pollard, asking, "Hey, man ... president of "what" ...?" and a snippet from real candidate Robert F. Kennedy; Kennedy was assassinated soon after the disc came out, which led many radio stations to refuse to play it.)


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: Also in 1967, Pollard played the lead role in Derek May's short drama, "Niagara Falls". Later that year, he was once again singled out for praise in Carl Reiner's autobiographical comedy "Enter Laughing"; noted film critic Roger Ebert wrote:


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: Michael J. Pollard, an unknown before his fascinating entry in "Bonnie and Clyde," brings his squint and grin to the part of Marvin, our hero's buddy, and steals every scene. There is something about Pollard that is absolutely original and seems to strike audiences as irresistibly funny and deserving of affection. If he works at it and gets a break or two, there will be no stopping him. Really. All he needs is visibility, and people will become addicted.


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: In 1969, he played the supporting role of an escaped American POW, "Packy", in the British World War II-themed comedy, "Hannibal Brooks", directed by Michael Winner.


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: In 1970, Pollard had a starring role as Little Fauss in the cult motorcycle racing movie, "Little Fauss and Big Halsy" with Robert Redford, Noah Beery Jr., Lucille Benson, and Lauren Hutton.


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: Pollard starred in "Dirty Little Billy" (1972), a revisionist western depicting Billy the Kid at the beginning of his criminal career, set in Coffeyville, Kansas:This is no typical, Tinseltown western though. It's more like The Making of a Sociopath, with Michael J. Pollard starring as displaced, 17-year-old Billy Bonney, in the days leading up to his evolution into the notorious Billy the Kid ... this is the perfect role for Pollard. And though a little old to play a teenager (he was 33), he hands us a Billy who's perpetually victimized by bad luck, until he finally blows a gasket at the very end and sparks his future.


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: In 1974, he played the role of a young man dying of cancer, in the season one opening episode, "The Time of His Life", of the trucking TV series "Movin' On". He later had a key supporting role in the 1980 cult film "Melvin and Howard" about the Melvin Dummar-Howard Hughes Mormon Will controversy. Pollard also starred in 6 episodes of the failed CBS comedy series "Leo & Liz in Beverly Hills" (1986) with Harvey Korman and Valerie Perrine.


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: In 1987, Pollard played the role of an inquisitive volunteer firefighter, Andy, in the film "Roxanne", starring Steve Martin. The following year Pollard played the role of Herman, a homeless man whose death strongly affects Bill Murray's character in the Christmas movie "Scrooged". Also in 1988, Pollard played a villain in the horror film "American Gothic".


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: In 1989, Pollard had a minor role in "" and a larger role (as the inventor of super weapons and a super car) in "Tango & Cash", which also starred Kurt Russell and Sylvester Stallone. Also in 1989, he had a two-episode role as the fifth-dimensional imp-villain Mr. Mxyzptlk in the "Superboy" TV series.


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: In 1992, he starred in a sixth-season episode of Ray Bradbury Theater, "The Handler", in which he portrayed a mortician who tried to give his clients a little extra treatment that he thought they should have. In 1993, he appeared in the horror film "Skeeter". In 1997, he played the role of Aeolus in "The Odyssey" starring Armand Assante.


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: Pollard continued to work in film and television into the 21st century, including his appearance as "Stucky" in the 2003 Rob Zombie-directed cult classic "House of 1000 Corpses.


title: Michael J. Pollard

text: Michael J. Pollard died on November 20, 2019, from cardiac arrest in Los Angeles, California. He was 80.


title: Calzone

text: A calzone (, , ; "stocking" or "trouser") is an Italian oven-baked folded pizza, often described as a turnover, made with leavened dough. It originated in Naples in the 18th century. A typical calzone is made from salted bread dough, baked in an oven and is stuffed with salami, ham or vegetables, mozzarella, ricotta and Parmesan or pecorino cheese, as well as an egg. Different regional variations in or on a calzone can often include other ingredients that are normally associated with pizza toppings. The term usually applies to an oven-baked turnover rather than a fried pastry (i.e. panzerotti), though "calzoni" and "panzerotti" are often mistaken for each other.


title: Calzone

text: A calzone is similar to a stromboli, an Italian-American pizza turnover, and the two are sometimes confused. Unlike strombolis, which are generally rolled or folded into a cylindrical or rectangular shape, calzones are always folded into a crescent shape, and typically do not contain tomato sauce inside.


title: Calzone

text: Sandwich-sized calzones are often sold at Italian lunch counters or by street vendors, because they are easy to eat while standing or walking. Fried versions of the calzone are typically filled with tomato and mozzarella: these are made in Apulia and are called "panzerotti".


title: Calzone

text: In Basilicata, a variety of calzone is known as "pastizz", which originated between the 18th and 19th century. Pork (or, more rarely, goat meat), eggs and cheese are main ingredients for the filling.


title: Calzone

text: The Sicilian "cuddiruni" or "cudduruni" pizza is distantly related to the calzone. This is a dish stuffed with onions (or sometimes other vegetables, such as potatoes or broccoli), anchovies, olives, cheese and mortadella; the rolled pizza dough is folded in two over the stuffing and the edges are sealed before the dish is fried.


title: Calzone

text: In the United States, calzones are typically made from pizza dough and stuffed with meats, cheeses, and vegetables.


title: Calzone

text: Traditional calzone dough, consisting of flour, yeast, olive oil, water, and salt, is kneaded and rolled into medium-sized disks.


title: Calzone

text: Each is then filled with cheeses such as ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, provolone, and other traditional vegetables or meats. The dough is then folded in half over the filling and sealed with an egg mixture in a half-moon shape, or is sometimes shaped into a ball by pinching and sealing all the edges at the top. It is then either baked or fried.


title: Calzone

text: In some areas, just before serving, they are topped with marinara or other traditional sauce, or with a mixture of garlic, olive oil, and parsley.


title: Calzone

text: In Italy, as of the 1960s, calzones were popularly believed to be the most efficient type of pizza for home delivery.


title: Soy milk

text: Soy milk (simplified Chinese: 豆浆; traditional Chinese: 豆漿) also known as soya milk or soymilk, is a plant-based drink produced by soaking and grinding soybeans, boiling the mixture, and filtering out remaining particulates. It is a stable emulsion of oil, water, and protein. Its original form is an intermediate product of the manufacture of tofu. Originating in China, it became a common beverage in Europe and North America in the latter half of the 20th century, especially as production techniques were developed to give it a taste and consistency more closely resembling that of dairy milk. Soy milk may be used as a substitute for dairy milk by individuals who are vegan or are lactose intolerant.


title: Soy milk

text: Soy milk is also used in making imitation dairy products such as soy yogurt, soy cream, soy kefir and soy-based cheese analogues. It is also used as an ingredient for making milkshakes, pancakes, smoothies, bread, mayonnaise, and baked goods.


title: Soy milk

text: In China, the usual term 豆浆 "dòujiāng" ("bean broth") is used for the traditional watery and beany beverage produced as an intermediate product in the production of tofu, whereas store-bought products designed to imitate the flavor and consistency of dairy milk, may contain a mixture of dairy and soy, are more often known as 豆奶 "dòunǎi" ("bean milk").


title: Soy milk

text: In other countries, there are sometimes legal impediments to the equivalents of the name "soy milk". In such jurisdictions, the manufacturers of plant milks typically label their products the equivalent of "soy beverage" or "soy drink".


title: Soy milk

text: In the European Union, "milk" by law refers exclusively to "the normal mammary secretion obtained from one or more milkings without either addition thereto or extraction therefrom". Only cow's milk is allowed to be named "milk" on packaging, and any other milks must state the name of the respective animal: for example, "goat milk" or "sheep milk". There are exceptions for traditional products such as coconut milk. The naming of soy drink as soy milk became subject of a 2017 court case before the Court of Justice of the European Union after a German consumer protection group filed an unfair competition complaint about a company describing its soya and tofu products as 'milk' or 'cheese'. The Court of Justice ruled that such designations cannot be legally used for purely plant-based products and that additions indicating the plant origin of the products ("soy" milk) does not influence that prohibition.


title: Soy milk

text: The earliest record of soybean milk is on a stone slab of the Eastern Han dynasty unearthed in China, on which is engraved the situation of making soy milk in ancient kitchens.


title: Soy milk

text: A tofu broth ("doufujiang") was used during the Mongol Yuan. As "doujiang", this drink remains a common watery form of soy milk in China, usually prepared from fresh soybeans. The compendium of Materia Medica, which was completed in 1578, also has an evaluation of soymilk. Its use increased during the Qing dynasty, apparently due to the discovery that gently heating "doujiang" for at least 90 minutes hydrolyzed its raffinose and stachyose, oligosaccharides which can cause flatulence and digestive pain among lactose-intolerant adults. By the 18th century, it was common enough that street vendors were hawking it; in the 19th, it was also common to take a cup to tofu shops to get hot, fresh "doujiang" for breakfast. It was already often paired with youtiao, which was dipped into it. The process was industrialized in early Republican China. By 1929, two Shanghai factories were selling over 1000 bottles a day and another in Beijing was almost as productive itself. Following disruption from the Second World War and the Chinese Civil War, soy milk began to be marketed in soft drink-like fashion in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan in the 1950s.