title: Aadhi

text: Pranav was injured while breaking glass for a scene. While performing an action scene in Kochi, Pranav's finger bruised and bled; he was taken to a hospital and was prescribed two days' rest. The crew had only three days of filming left and were about to return to Hyderabad for the weekend. Since the upcoming action scenes require many hand movements, filming was postponed to the next week. They were permitted to shoot only at weekends. When the first poster of the film was released on 4 November, Jeethu wrote on his social networking page that the final phase of filming was progressing in Hyderabad. Filming was wrapped on 8 November 2017.


title: Aadhi

text: Anil Johnson composed the music for the film, it features three songs. Besides acting, Pranav made his debut as a playback singer and songwriter with a retro English track in the film. When Jeethu asked, Pranav expressed interest in writing and singing the track that appears in a live performance scene in the film. He also played the guitar. Johnson was confident of Pranav's singing and guitar skills. Titling the song, finalizing the tune, and recording, was done in Kochi after Pranav returned from the final filming schedule in Hyderabad. "Sooryane", a single from the film was released by Goodwill Entertainments label on 5 January 2018 for digital download and as music video on YouTube. It was sung by Najim Arshad and written by Santhosh Varma. The music work was done at Blacknoise studio in Kochi and 20 dB Studios in Chennai.


title: Aadhi

text: The makers initially targeted a release by Christmas 2017, but in August that year, Jeethu confirmed the film would not be released at Christmas because filming was expected to finish by October and the film would have an extensive post-production. In early November 2017, Jeethu stated they had a few more days of filming left but had already begun the post-production work to ensure a release by the end of January 2018. Release date was confirmed in December 2017. "Aadhi" released in India on 26 January 2018.


title: Aadhi

text: "Aadhi" opened to positive response from critics. Anna M. M. Vetticad from "Firstpost" rated 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote that "Pranav Mohanlal is a perfect fit for a smashing action flick" and called it "one of the most exciting rollercoaster rides ever to emerge from Malayalam cinema ... "Aadhi" is marked by some clever writing, slick execution, top-notch production values and chases that are so frickin' awesome, they rival the "Bourne" films although Mollywood works on a fraction of the budget of an average Hollywood venture" and "Parkour is not Pranav's only strength. He is sweet-looking and a natural before the camera". Meera Suresh of "The New Indian Express" also gave 3.5 out of 5 and called it "an impressive debut from Pranav", stating that "it is a film made just for Pranav, to announce his arrival, and it is nothing less than grand ... Pranav makes it all worthwhile. With mind-boggling action sequences and enough screen presence, Mohanlal's son makes a comfortable debut, winning us with his charisma ... Full marks for the terrific performance in the action sequences, which are the film's highlights".


title: Aadhi

text: G. Ragesh of "Malayala Manorama" awarded 3.5 in a scale of 5 and said: "Pranav Mohanlal, perhaps, could not have waited for a better cinematic package than "Aadhi" to mark his entry to Malayalam cinema as a lead actor. The Jeethu Joseph directorial offers everything that a film in the populist mold can offer and explore all aspects of Pranav's acting skills" and "at the center of the narrative is a convincing performance by Pranav as an innocent young dreamer as well as a courageous and smart parkour expert". Describing the film "a thrilling ride", "Sify" critic rated 3 out of 5 and wrote: ""Aadhi" is an entertaining journey of a youth, which gives you some edge of the seat moments with his action skills ... In a role that demands tremendous acrobatic skills, Pranav Mohanlal makes a confident debut as a hero. He performs in a dedicated way and is a delight to watch as he unleashes his amazing athletic prowess" and "it's a rather simple storyline, and Jeethu Joseph has evidently tried to keep the viewers engaged using a fast paced presentation".


title: Aadhi

text: Manoj Kumar R. of "The Indian Express" awarded 3 out of 5 stars and stated that "Pranav's performance in action sequences is one of the mainstays in the film. Shot in real locations, Pranav draws applause for his skills in free running or popularly known as Parkour ... What makes this film works is Jeethu's equal distribution of responsibilities to each character to take the story forward. Even as "Aadhi" is a hero-centric film, Jeethu has treated Pranav's role as just the first among the equals". "Deccan Chronicle" critic also gave 3 stars out of 5 and said the film is "a high-octane, action-packed drama keeps audience, irrespective of ages, engaged. Pranav deserves one extra pat on the back for proving himself as a seasoned stuntman in his first movie outing". However, "the first half drags a bit". Deepa Soman of "The Times of India" also rated 3 out of 5 and said: "Pranav effortlessly portrays the soft-spoken, free-spirited Aadhi. He seems to have given his all for the numerous chasing and stunt scenes ... "Aadhi" deserves your time if you can look past the familiarity of the story, and want to enjoy a mix of Mohanlal nostalgia, stunts and the genuine efforts of a newbie actor to breathe life into his debut character".


title: Aadhi

text: The film was a commercial success at the box office, becoming one of the highest-grossing Malayalam films of the year. It grossed 50 Crore from the box office worldwide and ran over 100 days in theatres. In the opening weekend (9–11 February), the film grossed $42,907 (₹32.19 lakh) from 38 screens in the United States and £2,666 from two theatres in the United Kingdom. It collected £25,583 (₹23.19 lakh) from 94 screens in the UK in the second week. In four weeks, the film grossed $85,982 (₹55.98 lakh) in the US and £50,571 (₹45.34 lakh) in the UK. In the opening weekend (15–18 February), it grossed $403,843 from 41 screens in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—second best opener of that weekend (behind "Black Panther") and $9,557 from 3 screens in New Zealand. It collected $526,393 from the UAE in four weeks and $10,851 from New Zealand in two weeks. Three week gross in New Zealand was NZ$14,875.


title: Aadhi

text: Pranav won the Best Debut Actor award at the 8th South Indian International Movie Awards (SIIMA). Lena also won the SIIMA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Anusree won the award for Best Character Actress at the 21st Asianet Film Awards.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Agriculture is a major industry in the United States, which is a net exporter of food. As of the 2017 census of agriculture, there were 2.04 million farms, covering an area of , an average of per farm.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Agriculture in the United States is highly mechanized, with an average of only one farmer or farm laborer required per square kilometer of farmland for agricultural production.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Although agricultural activity occurs in every U.S. state, it is particularly concentrated in the Great Plains, a vast expanse of flat arable land in the center of the nation, in the region west of the Great Lakes and east of the Rocky Mountains. The eastern wetter half is a major corn and soybean producing region known as the Corn Belt, and the western drier half is known as the Wheat Belt because of its high rate of wheat production. The Central Valley of California produces fruits, vegetables, and nuts. The American South has historically been a large producer of cotton, tobacco, and rice, but it has declined in agricultural production over the past century. Florida leads the nation in citrus production and is the number two producer of oranges in the world behind only Brazil.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: The U.S. has led developments in seed improvement, such as hybridization, and in expanding uses for crops from the work of George Washington Carver to bioplastics and biofuels. The mechanization of farming and intensive farming have been major themes in U.S. history, including John Deere's steel plow, Cyrus McCormick's mechanical reaper, Eli Whitney's cotton gin, and the widespread success of the Fordson tractor and the combine harvester. Modern agriculture in the U.S. ranges from hobby farms and small-scale producers to large commercial farms that cover thousands of acres of cropland or rangeland.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Corn, turkeys, tomatoes, potatoes, peanuts, and sunflower seeds constitute some of the major holdovers from the agricultural endowment of the Americas.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Colonists had more access to land in the colonial United States than they did in Europe. The organization of labor was complex including free persons, slaves and indentured servants depending on the regions where either slaves or poor landless laborers were available to work on family farms.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: European agricultural practices greatly affected the New England landscape. Colonists brought livestock over from Europe which caused many changes to the land. Grazing animals required a lot of land and food and the act of grazing itself destroyed native grasses, which were being replaced by European species. New species of weeds were introduced and began to thrive as they were capable of withstanding the grazing of animals, whereas native species could not.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: The practices associated with keeping livestock also contributed to the deterioration of the forests and fields. Colonists would cut down the trees and then allow their cattle and livestock to graze freely in the forest and never plant more trees. The animals trampled and tore up the ground so much as to cause long-term destruction and damage.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Soil exhaustion was a huge problem in New England agriculture. Farming with oxen did allow the colonist to farm more land but it increased erosion and decreased soil fertility. This was due to deeper plow cuts in the soil that allowed the soil more contact with oxygen causing nutrient depletion. In grazing fields in New England, the soil was being compacted by the large number of cattle and this did not give the soil enough oxygen to sustain life.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: In the United States, farms spread from the colonies westward along with the settlers. In cooler regions, wheat was often the crop of choice when lands were newly settled, leading to a "wheat frontier" that moved westward over the course of years. Also very common in the antebellum Midwest was farming corn while raising hogs, complementing each other especially since it was difficult to get grain to market before the canals and railroads. After the "wheat frontier" had passed through an area, more diversified farms including dairy cattle generally took its place. Warmer regions saw plantings of cotton and herds of beef cattle. In the early colonial south, raising tobacco and cotton was common, especially through the use of slave labor until the Civil War. With an established source for labor, and the development of the cotton gin in 1793, the south was able to maintain an economy based on the production of cotton. By the late 1850s, the south produced one-hundred percent of the 374 million pounds of cotton used in the United States. The rapid growth in cotton production was possible because of the availability of slaves. In the northeast, slaves were used in agriculture until the early 19th century. In the Midwest, slavery was prohibited by the Freedom Ordinance of 1787.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: The introduction and broad adoption of scientific agriculture since the mid-19th century contributed to economic growth in the United States. This development was facilitated by the Morrill Act and the Hatch Act of 1887 which established in each state a land-grant university (with a mission to teach and study agriculture) and a federally funded system of agricultural experiment stations and cooperative extension networks which place extension agents in each state.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Soybeans were not widely cultivated in the United States until the early 1930s, and by 1942 it became the world's largest soybean producer, due in part to World War II and the "need for domestic sources of fats, oils, and meal". Between 1930 and 1942, the United States' share of world soybean production grew from 3% to 47%, and by 1969 it had risen to 76%. By 1973 soybeans were the United States' "number one cash crop, and leading export commodity, ahead of both wheat and corn". Although soybeans developed as the top cash crop, corn also remains as an important commodity. As the basis for "industrial food," corn is found in most modern day items at the grocery store. Aside from items like candy and soda, which contain high fructose corn-syrup, corn is also found in non-edible items like the shining wax on store advertisements.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Significant areas of farmland were abandoned during the Great Depression and incorporated into nascent national forests. Later, "Sodbuster" and "Swampbuster" restrictions written into federal farm programs starting in the 1970s reversed a decades-long trend of habitat destruction that began in 1942 when farmers were encouraged to plant all possible land in support of the war effort. In the United States, federal programs administered through local Soil and Water Conservation Districts provide technical assistance and partial funding to farmers who wish to implement management practices to conserve soil and limit erosion and floods.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Scholarship has shown that farmers in the early United States were open to planting new crops, raising new animals and adopting new innovations as increased agricultural productivity in turn increased the demand for shipping services, containers, credit, storage, and the like.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Although four million farms disappeared in the United States between 1948 and 2015, total output from the farms that remained more than doubled. The number of farms with more than almost doubled between 1987 and 2012, while the number of farms with to fell over the same period by 44%.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Farm productivity increased in the United States from the mid-20th century until the late-20th century when productivity began to stall.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: In addition to smaller productions of other agricultural products, such as melon (872 thousand tons), pumpkin (683 thousand tons), grapefruit (558 thousand tons), cranberry (404 thousand tons), cherry (312 thousand tons), blueberry (255 thousand tons), rye (214 thousand tons), olive (138 thousand tons), etc.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Tonnes of United States agriculture production, as reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the U.N. in 2003 and 2013 (ranked roughly in order of value):


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Other crops appearing in the top 20 at some point in the last 40 years were: tobacco, barley, and oats, and, rarely: peanuts, almonds, and sunflower seeds. Alfalfa and hay would both be in the top ten in 2003 if they were tracked by FAO.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Note alfalfa and hay are not tracked by the FAO and the production of tobacco in the United States has fallen 60% between 1997 and 2003.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Goats, horses, turkeys and bees are also raised, though in lesser quantities. Inventory data is not as readily available as for the major industries. For the three major goat-producing states—Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas—there were 1.2 million goats at the end of 2002. There were 5.3 million horses in the United States at the end of 1998. There were 2.5 million colonies of bees at the end of 2005.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Farm type is based on which commodities are the majority crops grown on a farm. Nine common types include:


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: One characteristic of the agricultural industry that sets it apart from others is the number of individuals who are self-employed. Frequently, farmers and ranchers are both the principal operator, the individual responsible for successful management and day-to-day decisions, and the primary laborer for his or her operation. For agricultural workers that sustain an injury, the resultant loss of work has implications on physical health and financial stability.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: The United States has over 14,000 certified organic farms, covering more than 5 million acres, though this is less than 1% of total US farmland. The output of these farms has grown substantially since 2011, and exceeded $7.5 billion USD in 2016.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Agriculture in the United States is primarily governed by periodically renewed U.S. farm bills. Governance is both a federal and a local responsibility with the United States Department of Agriculture being the federal department responsible. Government aid includes research into crop types and regional suitability as well as many kinds of subsidies, some price supports and loan programs. U.S. farmers are not subject to production quotas and some laws are different for farms compared to other workplaces.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Labor laws prohibiting children in other workplaces provide some exemptions for children working on farms with complete exemptions for children working on their family's farm. Children can also gain permits from vocational training schools or 4-H clubs which allow them to do jobs they would otherwise not be permitted to do.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: A large part of the U.S. farm workforce is made up of migrant and seasonal workers, many of them recent immigrants from Latin America. Additional laws apply to these workers and their housing which is often provided by the farmer.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Agriculture ranks among the most hazardous industries due to the use of chemicals and risk of injury. Farmers are at high risk for fatal and nonfatal injuries (general traumatic injury and musculoskeletal injury), work-related lung diseases, noise-induced hearing loss, skin diseases, chemical-related illnesses, and certain cancers associated with chemical use and prolonged sun exposure. In an average year, 516 workers die doing farm work in the U.S. (1992–2005). Every day, about 243 agricultural workers suffer lost-work-time injuries, and about 5% of these result in permanent impairment. Tractor overturns are the leading cause of agriculture-related fatal injuries, and account for over 90 deaths every year. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recommends the use of roll over protection structures on tractors to reduce the risk of overturn-related fatal injuries.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Farming is one of the few industries in which families (who often share the work and live on the premises) are also at risk for injuries, illness, and death. Agriculture is the most dangerous industry for young workers, accounting for 42% of all work-related fatalities of young workers in the U.S. between 1992 and 2000. In 2011, 108 youth, less than 20 years of age, died from farm-related injuries. Unlike other industries, half the young victims in agriculture were under age 15. For young agricultural workers aged 15–17, the risk of fatal injury is four times the risk for young workers in other workplaces Agricultural work exposes young workers to safety hazards such as machinery, confined spaces, work at elevations, and work around livestock. The most common causes of fatal farm-related youth injuries involve machinery, motor vehicles, or drowning. Together these three causes comprise more than half of all fatal injuries to youth on U.S. farms. Women in agriculture (including the related industries of forestry and fishing) numbered 556,000 in 2011.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Agriculture in the U.S. makes up approximately 75% of the country's pesticide use. Agricultural workers are at high risk for being exposed to dangerous levels of pesticides, whether or not they are directly working with the chemicals. For example, with issues like pesticide drift, farmworkers are not the only ones exposed to these chemicals; nearby residents come into contact with the pesticides as well. The frequent exposure to these pesticides can have detrimental effects on humans, resulting in adverse health reactions associated with pesticide poisoning. Migrant workers, especially women, are at higher risk for health issues associated with pesticide exposure due to lack of training or appropriate safety precautions. United States agricultural workers experience 10,000 cases or more of physician-diagnosed pesticide poisoning annually.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Some U.S. research centers are focused on the topic of health and safety in agricultural practices. These centers not only conduct research on the subject of occupational disease and injury prevention, but also promote agricultural health and safety through educational outreach programs. Most of these groups are funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the US Department of Agriculture, or other state agencies. Centers include:


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: The number of women working in agriculture has risen and the 2002 census of agriculture recorded a 40% increase in the number of female farm workers. Inequality and respect are common issues for these workers, as many have reported that they are not being respected, listened to, or taken seriously due to traditional views of women as housewives and caretakers.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Women may also face resistance when attempting to advance to higher positions. Other issues reported by female farm workers include receiving less pay than their male counterparts and a refusal or reluctance by their employers to offer their female workers the same additional benefits given to male workers such as housing.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: As of 2012, there were 44,629 African-American farmers in the United States. The vast majority of African-American farmers were in southern states.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: Historically, farmland has been owned by small property owners, but as of 2017 institutional investors, including foreign corporations, had been purchasing farmland. In 2013 the largest producer of pork, Smithfield Foods, was bought by a company from China.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: As of 2017, only about 4% of farms have sales over $1m, but these farms yield two-thirds of total output. Some of these are large farms have grown organically from private family-owned businesses.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: As of 2019, six states—Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Oklahoma—have laws banning foreign ownership of farmland. Missouri, Ohio, and Oklahoma are looking to introduce bills banning foreign ownership as of 2019.


title: Agriculture in the United States

text: The state with the most foreign ownership as of 2019 is Maine, which has 3.1 million acres that are foreign-controlled, followed closely by Texas at 3 million acres. Alabama, at 1.6 million acres, Washington, at 1.5 million acres, and Michigan, at 1.3 million acres, round out the top five, according to the Midwest Center's analysis.


title: Adaptive cruise control

text: Adaptive cruise control (ACC) is an available cruise control advanced driver-assistance system for road vehicles that automatically adjusts the vehicle speed to maintain a safe distance from vehicles ahead. As of 2019, it is also called by 20 unique names that describe that basic functionality. This is also known as Dynamic cruise control.


title: Adaptive cruise control

text: Control is based on sensor information from sensors. Such systems may use a radar or laser sensor or a camera setup allowing the vehicle to brake when it detects the car is approaching another vehicle ahead, then accelerate when traffic allows it to.


title: Adaptive cruise control

text: ACC technology is regarded as a key component of future generations of intelligent cars. The technology enhances passenger safety and convenience as well as increasing road capacity by maintaining optimal separation between vehicles and reducing driver errors. Vehicles with autonomous cruise control are considered a Level 1 autonomous car, as defined by SAE International. When combined with another driver assist feature such as lane centering, the vehicle is considered a Level 2 autonomous car.


title: Adaptive cruise control

text: Adaptive cruise control does not provide full autonomy: the system only provides some help to the driver, but does not drive the car by itself.


title: Adaptive cruise control

text: Laser-based systems do not detect and track vehicles in adverse weather conditions nor do they reliably track dirty (and therefore non-reflective) vehicles. Laser-based sensors must be exposed, the sensor (a fairly large black box) is typically found in the lower grille, offset to one side.


title: Adaptive cruise control

text: Radar-based sensors can be hidden behind plastic fascias; however, the fascias may look different from a vehicle without the feature. For example, Mercedes-Benz packages the radar behind the upper grille in the center and behind a solid plastic panel that has painted slats to simulate the look of the rest of the grille.


title: Adaptive cruise control

text: Single radar systems are the most common. Systems involving multiple sensors use either two similar hardware sensors like the 2010 Audi A8 or the 2010 Volkswagen Touareg, or one central long range radar coupled with two short radar sensors placed on the corners of the vehicle like the BMW 5 and 6 series.


title: Adaptive cruise control

text: A more recent development is the binocular computer vision system, such as that introduced to the US market in model year 2013 by Subaru. These systems have front-facing video cameras mounted on either side of the rearview mirror and use digital processing to extract depth information from the parallax between the two cameras' views.


title: Adaptive cruise control

text: Radar-based ACC is often sold together with a precrash system, which warns the driver and/or provides brake support if there is a high risk of a collision. Also in certain cars, it is incorporated with a lane maintaining system which provides a power steering assist to reduce steering input burden on corners when the cruise control system is activated.


title: Adaptive cruise control

text: Systems with multiple sensors can practice sensor fusion to integrate the data to improve safety and/or driving experience. GPS data can inform the system of geographic features such as a freeway offramp. A camera system could notice driver behavior such as brake lights and/or a turn signal. This could allow the following car to interpret a turn signal by an exit as not requiring the following car to slow down, as the leading car will exit. Multi-sensor systems could also take note of traffic signs/signals and not, e.g., violate a red light while following a vehicle that crossed before the signal changed.


title: Adaptive cruise control

text: Predictive systems modify vehicle speed based on predictions of other vehicles' behavior. Such systems can make earlier, more moderate adjustments to the predicted behavior, improving safety and passenger comfort. One example is to predict the likelihood of a vehicle in a neighboring lane moving in front of the controlled vehicle. One system predicts a lane change up to five seconds before it occurs.


title: Adaptive cruise control

text: Adaptive cruise control is regulated by European norm ISO 15622 Intelligent transport systems — Adaptive cruise control systems — Performance requirements and test procedures.


title: Adaptive cruise control

text: According to this standard, an ACC is partial automation of longitudinal vehicle control to reduce the


title: Adaptive cruise control

text: workload of the driver on roads where non-motorized vehicles and pedestrians are prohibited. It does not deal with stationary objects.


title: Adaptive cruise control

text: According to this standard, ACC includes two classes of systems: the FSRA (full speed range) and the LSRA (limited speed range).


title: Adaptive cruise control

text: In 1999, Mercedes introduced Distronic, the first radar-assisted adaptive system, on the Mercedes-Benz S-Class (W220) and the CL-Class. Distronic adjusts the vehicle speed automatically to the car in front in order to always maintain a safe distance to other cars on the road.


title: Adaptive cruise control

text: In 2005, Mercedes refined the system ("Distronic Plus") making the Mercedes-Benz S-Class (W221) the first car to receive the upgraded system. Distronic Plus could now completely halt the car if necessary on most sedans. In an episode of "Top Gear", Jeremy Clarkson demonstrated the effectiveness of the system by coming to a complete halt from motorway speeds to a round-about and getting out, without touching the pedals.


title: Adaptive cruise control

text: In 2016, Mercedes introduced Active Brake Assist 4, the first emergency braking assistant with pedestrian recognition.


title: Adaptive cruise control

text: One crash caused by Distronic Plus dates to 2005, when German news magazine ""Stern"" was testing Mercedes' original Distronic system. During the test, the system did not always manage to brake in time. Ulrich Mellinghoff, then Head of Safety, NVH, and Testing at the Mercedes-Benz Technology Centre, stated that some tests failed because the vehicle was tested in a metallic hall, which caused problems with radar. Later iterations received an upgraded radar and other sensors, which are not disrupted by a metallic environment. In 2008, Mercedes conducted a study comparing the crash rates of Distronic Plus vehicles and vehicles without it, and concluded that those equipped with Distronic Plus have an around 20% lower crash rate.


title: Michael Gordon (film director)

text: Michael Gordon (born Irving Kunin Gordon; September 6, 1909 – April 29, 1993) was an American stage actor and stage and film director.


title: Michael Gordon (film director)

text: Gordon was born in Baltimore, Maryland to Jewish parents: Paul Luis Gordon (1876-1957), who was born in Lithuania, and Eva "Rachel" Kuhen (1885-1940), who was born in Russia. Michael was the second of three boys born to the Gordon family; first born was Bertram Ira Gordon (1914-1985), who was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, and the third born was Leo Allenby Gordon (1919-2005).


title: Michael Gordon (film director)

text: Michael Gordon was a member of the Group Theatre (1935–1940), and was blacklisted as a Communist in the McCarthy era. He later joined the faculty of the UCLA Theater Department. Gordon summered at Pine Brook Country Club in Nichols, Connecticut. Pinebrook is best known for becoming the summer home of the Group Theatre.


title: Michael Gordon (film director)

text: As a result of being blacklisted, Gordon's Hollywood career fell into two phases. In 1940, he started as a dialogue director and directed B-movies. In the late 1940s, he distinguished himself by directing action movies, melodramas, and films noir. He also directed the 1950 film "Cyrano de Bergerac", for which José Ferrer won a Best Actor Academy Award.


title: Michael Gordon (film director)

text: After being blacklisted, he was forced to stop directing films temporarily, but was called back to Hollywood at the end of the 1950s by producer Ross Hunter, who wanted him to direct "Pillow Talk", a vehicle for Doris Day and Rock Hudson. Gordon's second creative phase was concerned with light-hearted, comedy films.


title: Michael Gordon (film director)

text: Gordon and his wife Elizabeth Cohn had three children: Jonathan, Jane (mother of actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt), and Susannah.


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: Cavalleria rusticana (; Italian for "rustic chivalry") is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from an 1880 short story of the same name and subsequent play by Giovanni Verga. Considered one of the classic "verismo" operas, it premiered on 17 May 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Since 1893, it has often been performed in a so-called "Cav/Pag" double-bill with "Pagliacci" by Ruggero Leoncavallo.


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: In July 1888 the Milanese music publisher Edoardo Sonzogno announced a competition open to all young Italian composers who had not yet had an opera performed on stage. They were invited to submit a one-act opera which would be judged by a jury of five prominent Italian critics and composers. The best three would be staged in Rome at Sonzogno's expense.


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: Mascagni heard about the competition only two months before the closing date and asked his friend Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, a poet and professor of literature at the Italian Royal Naval Academy in Livorno, to provide a libretto. Targioni-Tozzetti chose "Cavalleria rusticana", a popular short story (and play) by Giovanni Verga, as the basis for the opera. He and his colleague Guido Menasci set about composing the libretto, sending it to Mascagni in fragments, sometimes only a few verses at a time on the back of a postcard. As Mascagni believed that the work was hastily written and not reflective of his best efforts, his courage deserted him and he placed the draft in a drawer, from where his wife, Argenide Marcellina 'Lina' Mascagni, removed it and submitted it on the last day that entries would be accepted. In all, 73 operas were submitted, and on 5 March 1890, the judges selected the final three: Niccola Spinelli's "Labilia", 's "Rudello", and Mascagni's "Cavalleria rusticana".


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: There have been two other operas based on Verga's story. The first, "Mala Pasqua!" (Bad Easter!) by Stanislao Gastaldon, was entered in the same competition as Mascagni's. However, Gastaldon withdrew it when he received an opportunity to have it performed at the Teatro Costanzi, where it premiered on 9 April 1890. In the 1907 Sonzogno competition, Domenico Monleone submitted an opera based on the story, and likewise called "Cavalleria rusticana". The opera was not successful in the competition, but premiered later that year in Amsterdam and went on to a successful tour throughout Europe, ending in Turin. Sonzogno, wishing to protect the lucrative property which Mascagni's version had become, took legal action and successfully had Monleone's opera banned from performance in Italy. Monleone changed the opera ‘beyond recognition’, setting the music to a new libretto. In this form it was presented as "La giostra dei falchi" in 1914.


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: "Cavalleria rusticana" opened on the evening of 17 May 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome to a half empty house. However, the audience included not only the most authoritative music critics in the country but also Queen Margherita, a great music lover. It was a success from its opening notes. Following Stagno's rendition of the Siciliana behind the curtain, the audience leaped to their feet with a thunderous applause not heard for many years. The Siciliana was encored as were several other numbers in the opera. It was a sensation, with Mascagni taking 40 curtain calls and winning the First Prize.


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: Although Mascagni had started writing two other operas earlier ("Pinotta", premiered in 1932, and "Guglielmo Ratcliff", premiered in 1895), "Cavalleria rusticana" was his first opera to be completed and performed. It remains the best known of his fifteen operas and one operetta ("Sì"). Apart from "Cavalleria rusticana", only "Iris" and "L'amico Fritz" have remained in the standard repertory, with "Isabeau" and "Il piccolo Marat" on the fringes of the Italian repertoire. Its success has been phenomenal ever since its first performance. At the time of Mascagni's death in 1945, the opera had been performed more than 14,000 times in Italy alone.


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: In 1890, following its run of sold-out performances at the Teatro Costanzi, the opera was produced throughout Italy and in Berlin. It received its London premiere at the Shaftesbury Theatre on 19 October 1891 and its Covent Garden premiere on 16 May 1892.


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: American producers vied with each other (sometimes through the courts) to be the first to present the opera in that country. "Cavalleria rusticana" finally had its American premiere in Philadelphia at the Grand Opera House on 9 September 1891, followed by a performance in Chicago on 30 September 1891. The opera premiered in New York City on 1 October 1891, with two rival performances on the same day: an afternoon performance at the Casino, directed by Rudolph Aronson, and an evening performance at the Lenox Lyceum, directed by Oscar Hammerstein.


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: The opera received its first performance at the Metropolitan Opera on 30 December 1891 in a double bill with a fragment of Gluck's "Orfeo ed Euridice", and has since received over 700 performances there.


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: The opera was played during the 1920s in African-American theaters in Chicago. For example, the Vendome, featuring the orchestra of Erskine Tate, played music from this opera. Notably, Louis Armstrong performed and memorized the trumpet solo, coming out of the pit and mounting the stage to play it.


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: Before the action takes place, the young villager Turiddu returned from military service to find out that his fiancée Lola had married the carter Alfio while he was away. In revenge, Turiddu seduced Santuzza, a young woman in the village. As the opera begins, Lola, overcome by her jealousy of Santuzza, has begun an adulterous affair with Turiddu.


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: Offstage, Turiddu is heard singing a siciliana, "O Lola c'hai di latti la cammisa" ("O Lola, you whose blouse is as white as milk", commonly rendered in English as "O Lola! like the snow, pure in thy whiteness!"). To one side is the church; to the other is Lucia's wine-shop and the house where she lives with her son, Turiddu. The villagers move about the square, singing of the beautiful spring day, "Gli aranci olezzano sui verdi margini" (literally, "Oranges smell good on the green edges", rendered as "The air is sweet with orange blossoms" in the English libretto) and a hymn to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Some villagers enter the church, and others wander off still singing.


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: Santuzza, having slept with Turiddu and suspecting that he has betrayed her for Lola, is distraught and approaches Lucia as she comes out of her house. Santuzza asks for Turiddu, but Lucia replies that he has gone to another town to fetch some wine. Santuzza tells her that he was seen during the night in the village. Lucia asks her inside to talk, but just at that moment Alfio arrives on his wagon, accompanied by the villagers. He praises the joys of a teamster's life and the beauty of Lola his bride. Alfio asks Lucia for some of her fine old wine. She tells him it has run out and Turiddu has gone away to buy more. Alfio replies that he had seen Turiddu early that morning near his cottage. Lucia starts to express surprise, but Santuzza stops her.


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: Alfio leaves. The choir inside the church is heard singing the "Regina Coeli". Outside, the villagers sing an Easter Hymn, "Inneggiamo, il Signor non è morto" ("Let us sing hymns, the Lord is not dead", or "We rejoice that our Saviour is living!" in the English version) joined by Santuzza. The villagers enter the church, while Santuzza and Lucia remain outside. Lucia asks Santuzza why she signalled her to remain silent when Alfio said that he had seen Turiddu that morning. Santuzza exclaims, "Voi lo sapete" ("You well know") and tells Lucia the story of her seduction by Turiddu and his affair with Lola. Lucia pities Santuzza, who feels dishonored, having been seduced by Turiddu only to be abandoned by him for his old flame, Lola. Santuzza feels she cannot enter the church, but begs Lucia to go inside herself and pray for Santuzza who stays behind to try to plead with Turiddu to leave Lola and return to her.


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: Turiddu arrives. Santuzza upbraids him for pretending to have gone away, when he was actually seeing Lola. Lola enters the square singing. She mocks Santuzza and goes inside the church. Turiddu turns to follow Lola, but Santuzza begs him to stay. Turiddu pushes her away. She clings to him. He loosens her hands, throws her to the ground, and enters the church. Alfio arrives looking for Lola. Santuzza tells him that his wife has betrayed him with Turiddu. Alfio swears to take "vendetta" (revenge) which causes Santuzza to repent for having disclosed the affair and begs Alfio to stop, but to no avail.


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: The villagers come out of the church. Turiddu is in high spirits because he is with Lola and Santuzza appears to have gone. He invites his friends to his mother's wine-shop where he sings a drinking song, "Viva, il vino spumeggiante" ("Hail to the bubbling wine!"). Alfio joins them. Turiddu offers him wine, but he refuses it. All understand that trouble is in the air. The women leave, taking Lola with them. In a brief exchange of words, Alfio challenges Turiddu to a duel. Following Sicilian custom, the two men embrace, and Turiddu, in a token of acceptance, bites Alfio's ear, drawing blood which signifies a fight to the death. Alfio leaves and Turiddu calls Lucia back. He tells her that he is going outside to get some air and asks that she be a kindly mother to Santuzza if he should not return: "Un bacio, mamma! Un altro bacio!—Addio!" ("One kiss, mother! One more kiss! – Farewell!").


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: Turiddu rushes out. Lucia, weeping, wanders aimlessly around outside her house. Santuzza approaches and throws her arms around her. The villagers start to crowd around. Voices are heard in the distance and a woman cries, "They have murdered Turiddu!" Santuzza faints and Lucia collapses in the arms of the women villagers.


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: Mascagni calls for a standard-sized orchestra consisting of 2 flutes, 2 piccolos, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (triangle, cymbals, bass drum, side drum, tamtam, tubular bells), harp, organ and strings.


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: There have been over 100 full-length recordings of "Cavalleria rusticana" published since it was first recorded in Germany in 1909. As in live performances of the opera, recordings of the work have often been paired with Ruggero Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci". In addition to the original Italian, recordings of the work in the English, French, German, and Hungarian languages have been released. Mascagni himself conducted the opera in two recordings, the better-known of which is the 1940 EMI recording made to mark the 50th anniversary of the opera's premiere. The performance by the La Scala orchestra and chorus with Lina Bruna Rasa as Santuzza and Beniamino Gigli as Turiddu also has a spoken introduction by Mascagni. Originally released as an LP, it is available on CD under several historical recording labels.


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: A double-bill performance of "Cavalleria" and "Pagliacci" was transmitted as the first broadcast by New York City's Metropolitan Opera on 11 December 1910. Radio pioneer Lee de Forest talked Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the Met manager, into sending the program over the airwaves by using a backstage radio transmitter and a rooftop antenna, "using a long fishing pole for his mast." Enrico Caruso and Emmy Destinn were in the leading roles.


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: Few listened. There were no radios. But public receivers had been set up in several well-advertised locations in New York City, and people could catch at least an inkling of the music on earphones. The next day, "The New York Times" reported that static and other interference "kept the homeless song waves from finding themselves."


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: In Los Angeles, an "Italian Night" concert was heard live "in its entirety" on May 6, 1930, as the third program of the Adohr opera series over radio station KFI, featuring "A distinguished cast ... headed by Lisa Roma, noted lyric soprano ... Music lovers should not fail to tune in."


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: A notable use of the Intermezzo from "Cavalleria rusticana" in the United States was as the theme for a regular radio broadcast, "Symphony of the Rockies," which featured "a small string group playing light classical music" in the 1930s and 1940s over Denver radio station KOA, then owned and operated by the NBC network. It "was a 'feed' to the entire network from the KOA studios."


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: Apart from video recordings of live performances, there have been several cinematic versions of "Cavalleria rusticana", the most notable of which are:


title: Cavalleria rusticana

text: Costumed excerpts from the opera are performed in Mario Lanza's popular films "The Great Caruso" (1951) and "Because You're Mine" (1952). The opera's symphonic Intermezzo has figured in the sound track of several films, most notably in the opening and closing credits of "Raging Bull" and in the finale of "The Godfather Part III", which also featured a performance of the opera as a key part of the film's climax.


title: Never Look Away

text: Never Look Away () is a 2018 German epic coming-of-age romantic drama film written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. It was nominated for a Golden Lion at the 75th Venice International Film Festival and for a Golden Globe by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. It was nominated for two Academy Awards at the 91st Academy Awards, in the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography categories. This was only the second time that a German-language film by a German director was nominated for an Oscar in multiple categories, the other film being Wolfgang Petersen's "Das Boot" 36 years prior.


title: Never Look Away

text: As a child during the Nazi era, Kurt Barnert (inspired by Gerhard Richter) visits an exhibit of "Degenerate Art" in Dresden with his beautiful young aunt Elisabeth. While there, he is mesmerized by "Girl with Blue Hair", a modernist sculpture by Eugen Hoffmann. Later at home, Kurt walks in on Elisabeth playing the piano in the nude. She rambles euphorically, saying she is "playing a concert for the Führer" and hits herself on the head with a glass ashtray. She also tells Kurt to "never look away" because "everything that is true holds beauty in it."


title: Never Look Away

text: Elisabeth is diagnosed with schizophrenia and is sterilized and murdered under the Nazi euthanasia program. The doctor who orders her sterilization and death is gynecologist Professor Carl Seeband, a high-ranking member of the SS medical corps. After the war, he is arrested by the Russians and placed in a prison camp. While there, he volunteers to assist a Red Army officer's wife during a complicated birth and saves the lives of both wife and child. The grateful Russian officer releases Seeband and thereafter helps to keep evidence of his Nazi past from catching up with him.


title: Never Look Away

text: As an adult, Kurt studies painting at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, where he falls in love with a young fashion design student named Elisabeth (like his aunt), whom he calls Ellie. She is the daughter of Professor Seeband, though none of them are aware of their shared history and connection. Kurt excels in his studies, but is forced to complete paintings that reflect socialist realism, an ideology and school of art with which he does not identify. Eventually, he meets Ellie's father, who is now toeing the East German socialist party line. Seeband sees Kurt as genetically inferior to and therefore unsuitable for his daughter and goes to great lengths to sabotage the young couple's relationship, even forcing Ellie to have an abortion due to a made-up health concern when she becomes pregnant with Kurt's child. However, the young couple's love strengthens and eventually the two get married. Fearing prosecution after the Russian officer who had been protecting him is transferred to Moscow, Seeband flees East Germany for West Germany.


title: Never Look Away

text: Kurt and Ellie flee to West Germany themselves several years later. Since Kurt is already 30 years old, he lies about his age to be admitted to the famous Düsseldorf Art Academy, where he is able to study and practice art more freely than he could in East Germany. His teacher, Professor Antonius van Verten (based on Joseph Beuys) recognizes Kurt's deep personal experience, but also sees that he is struggling to find his own voice, having been trained only in figurative painting, a medium considered outdated and "bourgeois" by the standards of the school. Kurt shares adjoining studio space with fellow student and confidant Harry Preusser (inspired by Günther Uecker), who experiments with hammering nails into boards to produce large artworks.


title: Never Look Away

text: Only when Kurt finds a newspaper article about a captured Nazi doctor who was Seeband's superior does he have his artistic breakthrough. He starts using his figurative painting skills to copy black-and-white photographs onto canvases, adding a mysterious sfumato blur. Among the sources for the new paintings are Seeband's passport photographs and photographs of Kurt with Aunt Elisabeth from his own family album. When Seeband sees a painting that is a collage of himself, the captured Nazi doctor, and Kurt with Elisabeth, he abruptly leaves the studio. It is unclear if he is simply overwhelmed at being reminded of his past, just realized Elisabeth was Kurt's relative, or believes his son-in-law has uncovered his secret, but Kurt, for his part, still seems to be unaware of the connection.


title: Never Look Away

text: After years of infertility due to the abortion, Ellie becomes pregnant, and Kurt celebrates the moment she told him by painting her nude. Some time later, he gets his first art show, where his art impresses the critics, even though they completely misunderstand and misinterpret it. He rejoices in finally finding his voice and his place in the world.


title: Never Look Away

text: Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck explained that "Never Look Away" is a work of fiction, but that the inspiration had been an article by German investigative reporter Jürgen Schreiber about German painter Gerhard Richter. Richter's aunt had been murdered by the Nazis because she developed schizophrenia. Richter immortalized her in a painting titled "Aunt Marianne", in which she is holding Gerhard Richter as a baby. This painting was originally released under the title "Mother and Child" because it was Richter's habit to obfuscate the connections his paintings had to his personal life. This led art historians to refer to his body of work as being "without author", as it purportedly had no connection to its author's life.


title: Never Look Away

text: What Schreiber's investigative research uncovered in 2002 was that Gerhard Richter's father-in-law, , had been a high-ranking SS-doctor and fervent Nazi who himself performed over 900 forced sterilizations on women whom the Nazis considered unfit to reproduce. While he did not perform the operation on Marianne Schönfelder personally, he was the director of the hospital where it was performed.


title: Never Look Away

text: Even though Gerhard Richter only found out about this connection between the families through the article at age 70, his body of work suggests that – at least on a subconscious level – he must have known. One of his earliest paintings is of the arrest of Eufinger's SS boss, Werner Heyde, from a newspaper photograph. Another one from the same series, "Family at the Seaside", is a snapshot from his wife's photo album showing her father, Professor Eufinger, horse-playing with his family, a photograph that is unremarkable except for the fact that it was taken around the exact time Eufinger sent Richter's aunt to her death.


title: Never Look Away

text: The largest photo painting that Gerhard Richter produced before turning to abstract art was "Ema, Nude on a Staircase" (#134 in his official catalogue raisoné). Ema, short for "Marianne", was Gerhard Richter's wife and also shared her first name with his aunt. Unusually for Richter, this painting is dated very precisely to May 1966. His first child was born on 30 December 1966, and he explained that this photograph was staged by him when he had found out that Ema was three months pregnant. In a "New Yorker" profile of writer/director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who spent many weeks with Gerhard Richter during his research for the film, but had not revealed anything about the content of these conversations, the director is quoted as saying that Gerhard Richter said "Ema's father had been her gynecologist, and that there were mysteries and rumors around the treatment that he provided her".


title: Never Look Away

text: Richter claimed he told Donnersmarck that he did not want the movie character to bear his name. He also claimed he suggested to Donnersmarck that the film's protagonist might have a different profession. Donnersmarck read Richter the full screenplay when he was finished writing it so Richter could see for himself how much was fiction and where facts from his life were used. When the film was finished and Donnersmarck offered to arrange a screening, however, Richter said he did not feel up to it and did not feel he had the strength to see the film. Donnersmarck stated he understood this reaction, as few people would want to relive some version of the most traumatic chapters of their life on screen. He said it would probably be hurtful if it was too close to the facts and perhaps even more hurtful if it was not close enough, concluding that, "Maybe the film is for everybody except him".


title: Never Look Away

text: When asked to comment on the film by the German press, Richter said he had not seen the film, but he found the trailer too "reißerisch", or thriller-like. Commenting on the material he had supplied to Donnersmarck in interviews, Richter told "The New Yorker": "I gave him something in writing stating that he was explicitly not allowed to use or publish either my name or any of my paintings. He reassured me to respect my wishes. But in reality, he has done everything to link my name to his movie, and the press was helping him to the best of its ability. Fortunately, the most important newspapers here reviewed his concoction very skeptically and critically. Nevertheless, he managed to abuse and grossly distort my biography!"


title: Never Look Away

text: At the 75th Venice International Film Festival, where "Never Look Away" had its very first public screening, it received a 13-minute standing ovation and came in first place. It also won audience awards at various festivals, mostly in competition with the same films it was up against in Venice.


title: Never Look Away

text: The "San Francisco Chronicle" quoted William Friedkin (director of "The French Connection" and "The Exorcist", among others) as stating: "One of the finest films I have ever seen is "Never Look Away" – a masterpiece."


title: Never Look Away

text: In an interview with Mingle Media, Miranda Bailey (producer, actress, and founder of the feminist critic website Cherrypicks) called "Never Look Away" "the best movie I've ever seen, in my entire life – "ever" – in my "whole life"."


title: Never Look Away

text: "Never Look Away" holds fresh rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of based on reviews; the critics consensus states: ""Never Look Away" fills its protracted running time with the absorbing story of an incredible life - and its impact on the singular artist who lived it." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Never Look Away

text: Ann Hornaday writing in "The Washington Post" wrote: "The title of "Never Look Away" is deliciously ironic: This is one of the most mesmerizing, compulsively watchable films in theaters right now." Leonard Maltin, who taught the film at his master class at USC Film School, wrote: "I urge you to see "Never Look Away." It is a rich and rewarding experience, and the three hours fly by." In "Commentary" magazine, in an article titled "The Greatness of Never Look Away – Triumphant", editor-in-chief John Podhoretz, compared "Never Look Away" favorably to David Lean's "Doctor Zhivago" and called it "the rare movie you actually wish were longer because it is so involving, heart-wrenching, and beautiful."


title: Never Look Away

text: The novelist Kyle Smith, critic-at-large for the "National Review", wrote in an article titled "A New Cinematic Masterpiece": "The German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck already has one of the best films of the century to his credit: 2007’s "The Lives of Others". His new one is, I think, even better. It may be the best German film I’ve ever seen. "Never Look Away" is the title." He went on to state: "It's about the biggest themes (art, war, love, death), it's emotionally overwhelming, its dialogue is lapidary, its musical score transporting. It's one of the best films of the decade."


title: Never Look Away

text: Dissenting voices include contrarian critic Armand White of the "National Review" and David Edelstein, writing for "New York" magazine's Vulture.com website. Boyd van Hoeij wrote in "The Hollywood Reporter" that "the work's considerations of the intimate connection among being, art and life finally feel quite superficial."


title: Never Look Away

text: "Never Look Away" reached a lifetime theatrical gross in the United States of US$1,303,747, becoming the 15th German-language feature film to pass the million-dollar mark in the country.


title: My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom

text: "" is an animated television series produced by Hasbro as part of the "My Little Pony" toy franchise, which is tied in with the 2010 relaunch of dolls and play sets and original programming for the American children's cable channel Discovery Family (formerly Hub Network). Lauren Faust was selected as the creative developer and executive producer for the show based on her previous animation experience with other animated shows such as Cartoon Network's "The Powerpuff Girls" and "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends". Under Hasbro's guidance, Faust developed the show to appeal to the target demographic of young girls, but created characters and settings that challenged formerly stereotypical norms of "girly" images and added adventure and humorous elements in order to keep parents interested.


text: The series received widespread praise from both television critics and parental groups. It also found a large audience of adult internet users in late 2010 and early 2011, forming a subculture. These fans, mostly consisting of adult men, were drawn to the show's characters, stories, animation style and influence of the show's propagation as an Internet meme. The fandom adopted the name brony (plural bronies), a portmanteau of "bro" and "pony", as well as pegasisters, which is also a portmanteau of pegasus and sister. Though initially considered to propagate the humorous and ironic concept of people enjoying a show intended for young girls, the fandom has shown deeper appreciation for the show far beyond this concept and is considered part of a New Sincerity trend. Its technology-savvy members have created numerous works in writing, music, art and video based on the show, have established websites and fan conventions for the show and have participated in charitable events around the show and those that create it. The fandom has also drawn criticism from the media and pundits who have derided the older demographic's embrace of a television series marketed towards young girls as well as mass amounts of fan-produced pornographic artwork and literature and alleged misogyny by bronies.


text: The appreciation of the show by an older audience came as a surprise to Hasbro, Faust and others involved with its development, but they have embraced the older fans while also staying focused on the show's intended audience. Such reciprocity has included participation in fan conventions by the show's voice actors and producers, recognition of the brony fandom in official promotional material, and incorporating background characters popularized by the fans (such as the fandom-named "Derpy Hooves") into in-jokes within the show. As a result of these efforts in part, "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic" has become a major commercial success with the series becoming the highest rated original production in Hub Network's broadcast history.


text: One of the first critical reviews of "Friendship Is Magic", which was published shortly after the initial broadcast in October 2010, was written by Amid Amidi of the animation website "Cartoon Brew", who wrote that the show was a sign of "the end of the creator-driven era in TV animation". Amidi's essay expressed concern that assigning a talent like Faust to a toy-centric show was part of a trend towards a focus on profitable genres of animation such as toy tie-ins to deal with a fragmented viewing audience and overall "an admission of defeat for the entire movement, a white flag-waving moment for the TV animation industry." The article said this concern was over the fact that more and more shows seem to be driven by company executives who want to sell their products, rather than creators. Though the show had been discussed on 4chan's 'comics and cartoon' board ('/co/') before the essay's publication, the alarmist nature of the essay led to more interest in the show, resulting in a positive response for the series for its plot, characters, and animation style. This reaction soon spread to the other boards of 4chan, where elements of the show quickly inspired recurring jokes and memes on the site. Some of these included adopting phrases from the show like "anypony", "everypony" and "nopony", instead of "anybody", "everybody" and "nobody", or jokingly stating that they watch the show for the "plot", a reference to the ponies' flanks.


text: The number of "Friendship Is Magic" posts drew attention on the site. Fans of the show defended it against various trolling attacks from other 4chan boards, leading to a temporary ban on the discussion of anything related to ponies. Christopher Poole, the founder of 4chan, briefly acknowledged the popularity of the show on the site at the 2011 South by Southwest festival. Poole later created a dedicated board for discussion of the show and its fandom. Though the discussion of the show continued at 4chan, fans created other venues to discuss it, and the fandom spread to other Internet forums.


text: The adult interest in the show is comparable to that of "Looney Tunes", "Animaniacs", "Tiny Toon Adventures", "Rocko's Modern Life", "Phineas and Ferb", "The Powerpuff Girls", "SpongeBob SquarePants", and "Yo Gabba Gabba!"; older audiences appreciate jokes aimed at adult viewers and a sense of nostalgia for older cartoons and animated films. Many of the aforementioned shows had attracted college-aged fans who, when "Friendship Is Magic" was airing, would be raising children of their own. The show references works that older viewers would recognize, such as "I Love Lucy", "The Benny Hill Show", "Jaws", "", "Diamond Dogs", "The Big Lebowski", "Ghostbusters", "Star Wars" and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". Most of these fans are surprised by their fondness for the show. Shaun Scotellaro, operator of Equestria Daily, one of the main fan websites for the show, said, "Honestly, if someone were to have told me I'd be writing a pony blog seven months ago, I would have called them insane." He commented that the spread among adults was accelerated by its presence in online gaming. Mike Fahey, an editor for the gaming website Kotaku, noted that the fandom was "building friendships among a diverse group of people that otherwise might have just sat on either side of the Internet, flinging insults at each other". Dr. Patrick Edwards, who performed several "Brony Studies" to survey and analyze the fandom, observed that the brony fandom, unlike most other fandoms which "aren't welcoming to people who are different", promotes the show's message of love and tolerance. Further interest came from the furry community, which includes a large number of animation fans. One contributor to "The Brony Study" (below), Dr. Marsha Redden said that the adult fans are "a reaction to the US having been engrossed in terrorism for past ten years" in a manner similar to the Cold War, and are "tired of being afraid, tired of angst and animosity"; the show and its fandom are outlets from those strifes. She compared the brony fandom to that of the bohemian and beatniks after World War II and of the hippies after the Vietnam War. In a similar vein, Amy Keating Rogers, one of the show's writers, believes that the fans have come to like "Friendship Is Magic" due to "so much cynicism and negativity out there in so many [other] shows" while the show "has such a positive message" that counters this.


text: After increasing in popularity in the early 2010s, the fandom reached its peak in the mid-2010s, exemplified by BronyCon 2015 drawing over 10,000 guests. However, the following years would see "Friendship is Magic"'s popularity decline. The National Post reported in early 2019 that several prominent "Friendship is Magic"-themed conventions such as BronyCAN had been over for years, the fandom was rapidly shrinking due to the show's end becoming increasingly apparent, and that BronyCon was ending after its 2019 iteration due to attendance having halved between 2015 and early 2019.


text: Unconfirmed (later confirmed) leaks of information from Hasbro stated that the show's , which premiered in 2019, would be the last for the "G4" (Generation 4) ponies with a move towards a fifth generation ("G5"). Equestria Daily saw significant drop-off in readership in the preceding years with most readers primarily discussing new episodes rather than other fan content. The fandom's largest convention, BronyCon, had seen its peak attendee numbers drop from 10,000 to under 6,000 in 2018 and decided that it would be appropriate to end the convention after a four-day event in 2019.


text: The 5th generation of My Little Pony was launched in October 2021 with a CGI animated film "", set in the same universe as "Friendship is Magic" but many years later with new characters. It will be followed by the animated series of "" and "" in 2022 using these same new characters. The fandom has embraced the new Generation 5, with fandom websites such as Equestria Daily displaying official and fandom-created content from both generations 4 and 5.


text: Older fans of the show use the word "brony", a portmanteau of the words "bro" and "pony". Though this generally refers to male fans, the term is often applied to fans of any gender. Another term, "Pegasister", has been used to refer to older female fans of the show. Two informal surveys of 2,300 and 9,000 participants respectively revealed that the average age of adult fans is around 21, that approximately 86% were male, and that 63% were currently pursuing a college degree or higher qualification. A subsequent 2013 survey with over 21,000 respondents showed similar numbers, and highlighted that the majority of fans were in the 15–30 age range, with the average age between 19 and 20, and over 65% were heterosexual. Further, using the Jungian personality test, the survey revealed that the largest fraction of respondents (approximately 27%) fell into the "INTJ" classification, which normally only occurs in 1–3% of the population, according to the surveyors. Many in the fandom who had difficulty in meeting others or being treated fairly by others found the fandom as a way to meet people with similar interests and become more social. Hub Network's CEO and President Margaret Loesch, who was the executive producer of the 1980s and 1990s animated "My Little Pony" television shows, noted that there were male fans of those past shows, but there are considerably more for "Friendship Is Magic" due to the quality of the show and the influence of social media and the Internet.


text: Some bronies are enlisted personnel in various United States Armed Forces, who have included the various "cutie marks" symbols from the show as insignia on their uniforms or equipment, despite not being appropriate practice for most branches, or worn only during training operations. Margaret Loesch, the CEO and President of The Hub, noted from an email from a group of United States enlisted personnel in Afghanistan explained how they came by the show by way of their daughters, but found the emphasis on teamwork and covering each other's backs resonated with their military fellowship. A fan-conducted "herd census" suggests that, , there are between 7 and 12.4 million people in the United States that would identify themselves as bronies.


text: A more detailed study, "The Brony Study", is currently being conducted as of 2012 by Dr. Patrick Edwards, a psychology professor at Wofford College with his neuropsychologist associate Dr. Redden. The two had initially compiled one of the aforementioned informal surveys and Edwards has presented the results at the ongoing brony conventions. Edwards noted that the brony culture provided "the opportunity to study a fan phenomenon from its inception", and planned to continue the survey to watch the evolution of the culture. Professor emeritus Bill Ellis of Penn State University has compared the brony culture to that of otaku, fans of Japanese anime. Ellis, speaking at the 2012 AnimeNEXT convention, considered that both bronies and otaku fans are "psychologically and developmentally normal" and are simply "non-majoritarian" in their choice of active interests. Ellis noted that fans of both groups often are ridiculed for their interest in media targeted for the opposite gender.


text: Though the initial growth of the fandom may have come from 4chan participants enjoying the ironic nature of grown men enjoying a show for girls, the fandom continues to grow based on sincere appreciation of the work. Robert Thompson, a professor of media studies at Syracuse University, stated that "It's one thing for guys to like motorcycles and muscle cars and soccer. For a guy to like "My Little Pony", it's so out there that it becomes almost avant garde. It has a hip quality to it." According to Angela Watchcutter of "Wired", the fandom is an example of internet neo-sincerity, where these older viewers watch the show "un-ironically" and "without guilt" breaking gender stereotypes, furthermore creating new material around it. Prof. Roberta Pearson of the University of Nottingham in film and television studies stated that "This is a level of fan devotion I've not seen before," while Prof. Charles Soukup of the University of Northern Colorado in communication studies suggested that this effort is an indication of the "ultra-cult era" that bronies exhibit, where "media consumers discover extremely unexpected and obscure media texts to cultivate uniqueness and distinctiveness for their mediated identities". Jessica Klein, writing for "Salon", noted that the fandom was an especially welcoming space for female fans in comparison to other male-dominated fandoms.


text: Websites such as Equestria Daily and Ponychan were created for fans to share artwork, stories, music, and news about the show. Founded in January 2011, Equestria Daily had over 36 million pageviews in its first 9 months, and has since surpassed 500 million views (June 2014). The blog, which receives more than 175,000 visits a day and is fully funded by advertising revenue, was established by 23-year-old college student Shaun Scotellaro for the purpose of collecting fan fiction and news specific to "Friendship Is Magic". Shaun eventually cut back on his community college classes in order to continue running the site out of his parents' house in Glendale, Arizona, when it grew in popularity. He believed the show needed a unified fan base at the time, as there existed an overarching concern that Hasbro would not be authorizing a . In September 2017, selected archives of Equestria Daily were included in the Library of Congress's "Web Cultures Web Archive Collection" by the American Folklife Center; the collection was established to "documenting the creation and sharing of emergent cultural traditions on the web".


text: Fans commonly organize local meet-ups and conventions in their local areas. One of the first published conventions was BronyCon, which was first held in New York City with the show's supervising director as a guest. The first BronyCon attracted 100 people, but the third, held in January 2012, was attended by 800, and the fourth expanded to a two-day event in June 2012 at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in New Jersey, with more than 4,000 attending with developer Lauren Faust and voice actors John de Lancie, Tara Strong, Andrea Libman, Peter New, Lee Tockar, Amy Keating Rogers, Cathy Weseluck and Meghan McCarthy as special guests. Strong even attended the convention Canterlot Gardens in a full Twilight Sparkle cosplay to surprise fans. Subsequent BronyCon events moved to a larger space provided by the Baltimore Convention Center, with more than 8,000 attending. Other brony conventions include Everfree Northwest in Seattle, Washington, Midwestria in Chicago, Illinois, Canterlot Gardens in Cleveland, Ohio, Equestria LA in Los Angeles, BABSCon in Burlingame, California, Ponycon NY in the metropolitan New York City region, BronyCAN in British Columbia, Canada, GalaCon in Ludwigsburg, Germany, BUCK in Manchester, United Kingdom, PonyCon AU in Sydney, Australia, Crystal Mountain Pony Con in Salt Lake City, Utah and Pacific PonyCon in San Diego, California. Nearly a dozen brony conventions were planned in 2012. In addition, established "My Little Pony" conventions prior to the "Friendship Is Magic" show, such as the "My Little Pony Fair" or "UK PonyCon", have seen increases in their numbers due to the attendance of bronies. A long-running annual art show, the "My Little Pony Project", where artists re-imagine "My Little Pony" figurines and toys into works of art, has also seen additional attendance and contributions from the brony community.


text: The fandom is considered to be charitable, raising money for a number of different efforts. The Brony Thank You Fund was originally established to create a fan-funded advertisement to air on Hub Network as a thank you to the show's creators in November 2012. The charitable drive far exceeded its goal, with additional funds used to give money to provide toys for children through Toys For Tots. The fund has since incorporated in the state of New Hampshire, and successfully registered as a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization under United States law. They claim to be the first such media-related fandom to achieve this status. In December 2013, the Fund donated $50,000 to endow an animation scholarship in perpetuity at the California Institute of the Arts. Similarly, a group called "Bronies for Good" ran blood drives and raised over $60,000 during 2012 for charities like the Children's Cancer Association, Room to Read, CureSearch, and Your Siblings. Voice actress Tara Strong has gained help from the fandom for her "Kiki's Cancer Fund" to help the daughter of a close friend who had been diagnosed with a brain tumor, and has stated that the child "wouldn't be alive today without the "My Little Pony" fans"; raising $100,000 to help however, the girl subsequently died of her illness. Faust enlisted help from the bronies to raise money for the Wildlife Learning Center in California, with the Center offering to name some of its animals after characters in the show when certain donation levels were raised.


text: In January 2014, 11-year-old Michael Morones of North Carolina attempted suicide after being bullied by his schoolmates for watching the show and was subsequently hospitalized. The brony community subsequently reached out to the family and, with several members of the show's cast and crew, started a charity drive to help pay for his medical bills and a non-profit organization to help combat bullying; the efforts raised over $48,000 within a week and more than $72,000 a month later. Many of these donations were raised by Tony Wayne and other tattoo artists across the country, with the funds going to Morones's family and anti-bullying charities. Thousands of men and women received pony tattoos to both support Morones and show their support for anti-bullying. Morones, whose suicide attempt left him in a vegetative state, died on October 27, 2021, at the age of 19.


text: The documentary film, "", was funded several times over its requested Kickstarter amount, allowing the filmmakers to expand the scope of the project. An organized group of fans, calling themselves the "Humble Brony Bundle", accepted donations from its members towards the Humble Indie Bundle, a charitable independent video game sales drive for Child's Play and the American Red Cross, which topped the contribution list for one sale and contributed the largest single donation for a later sale after a friendly competition with "Minecraft" developer Markus Persson. In the next major bundle, the same friendly rivalry topped the donation charts; the Humble Brony Bundle donated over US$13,000 and exceeded Persson's and the rest of the leaderboard's donation.


text: Many artists use sites such as DeviantArt to display fan art based on existing and fan-created characters; more than 500,000 pieces of "Friendship Is Magic" artwork were present on DeviantArt by June 2012. Adult fans have also created a number of plush toys and other figures based on the show's and fandom-created characters, which they sell on eBay and other auction sites to other fans, sometimes for over 100 US dollars.


text: Videos that incorporate footage from the show, including music videos, parodies and remakes of movie and video game trailers, are posted regularly on YouTube. One early video that caught media attention was made by high school student Stephen Thomas, using science to dissect some of the physical impossibilities on "My Little Pony" as part of a class presentation; it was later featured on the "Tosh.0" website. Remixed versions of professional works using "Friendship Is Magic" footage have been noticed by their creators; filmmaker Edgar Wright noted "My Little Pony" versions of the trailers for his films "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" and "Hot Fuzz". "Top Gear"s UK blog team and the UK edition of the "Top Gear" magazine noted a video using clips of their show featuring pony characters. A fan-made "Friendship Is Magic" version of South Korean rapper Psy's "Gangnam Style" music video incorporating an "invisible horse dance" has been highlighted by media outlets as one of the top takes on the video. One fan, Zachary Rich, created a full-length Flash-based fan film, "Double Rainboom", as part of his college coursework at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Pony-based videos of "Weird Al" Yankovic's songs that Yankovic had highlighted in his Twitter feed led to discussions between the musician and the show directors, and eventually a guest appearance in the show in the fourth season episode "Pinkie Pride".


text: The fan community has produced numerous fan fiction works based on "Friendship is Magic", most of them posted on , a dedicated website strictly for franchise-based stories. One of the longest is "", written by "Kkat" based on the "Fallout" video game series. Another notable fan fiction list includes selected works by Bernard Doove, an author of adult-oriented furry stories; specifically mentionable are the House Path series and the "Off The Mark" trilogy, which have been published in online, printed and e-book form.


text: Some fans have created video games based on "Friendship Is Magic", such as the fighting game "My Little Pony: Fighting Is Magic" (which eventually became "Them's Fightin' Herds"), modifications of existing games like "Team Fortress 2" and "", or crossover artwork between the animated show and video game settings. Flash-based applications allow fans to create their own pony characters in the artistic style of the show.


text: The fandom has been noted for the quantity and diversity of music produced by its members, including cover versions of songs from the show and original songs inspired by the show and its fandom. In January 2014, BronyTunes (an iOS and web app) was released that collected over 7,000 songs and remixes inspired by the show. "Everfree Network", a brony media network, compiled more than 4,800 pieces of fan music by over 500 different musicians in late December 2011. Thiessen commented that many of these fan productions approach the quality of his studio's work, and suggested the possibility of crowd-sourcing some aspects of future production, while the show's composer, Daniel Ingram, often features fan-made songs on his personal webspace. A group of fan musicians compiled a charity album of original songs, entitled "Smile", which raised over $21,000 within a month for the Children's Cancer Association.


text: The fandom is also notable for its prominence in science, technology, and engineering. 15.ai, a popular artificial intelligence text-to-speech web application created by an anonymous research scientist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, features the voices of a number of from "Friendship Is Magic". The developer has stated that the logo of 15.ai, which features a robotic Twilight Sparkle, is an homage to the fact that her voice (as originally portrayed by Tara Strong) was indispensable to their work. In addition, the Pony Preservation Project is a "collaborative effort by /mlp/ [the "My Little Pony" board of 4chan] to build and curate pony datasets" with the aim of creating applications in artificial intelligence. The "Friendship Is Magic" voices on 15.ai were trained on a large dataset crowdsourced by the Pony Preservation Project: audio and dialogue from the show and related media—including , , spinoffs, leaks, and various other content voiced by the same voice actors—were parsed, hand-transcribed, and processed to remove background noise by the contributors of the Pony Preservation Project.


text: Lauren Faust, the then-executive producer, expressed appreciation for show's adult fans on her DeviantArt page. Faust had not expected men without children to watch it, but said, "The fact that they did and that they were open-minded and cool enough and secure in their masculinity enough to embrace it and love it and go online and talk about how much they love it—I'm kind of proud." Of her surprise to the unexpected fandom, Faust said, "From the messages I've received, these episodes have lifted spirits, brought parents and kids together, changed perspectives and inspired the most unlikely of people in the most unlikely of places. Who would have thought it from a show about candy-colored ponies?"


text: Faust noted the cynicism about the brony fandom, and commented that in considering the idea of grown men watching a show for little girls, "They think there's something wrong with that, something devious about it"; she noted that it was "upsetting to me that people jump to those conclusions". Faust believes that her future animated shows aimed at girls will be easier to sell considering the male adult fandom of "Friendship Is Magic", and that that type of programming is not as great a risk as is perceived. After Hasbro issued a cease and desist to the "Fighting Is Magic" project over the use of copyrighted and trademarked characters, Faust offered to provide the developers with original character arts to allow them to continue to develop the game without copyright issues.


text: The internet groups surrounding the fandom have enabled the show's producers to quickly assess their work; director and producer Jayson Thiessen stated "As soon as the episode airs, I can go online and see people's responses in real time". Many of the creative staff are on various social media services and directly interact with the fandom, including doing questions-and-answer sessions live during the broadcast of new episodes. Daniel Ingram, who writes and composes some of the , was pleased with the fan's reaction to the series' music but said, "I never forget about the original demographic of our show, which is six-year-old girls. Just because it's for kids... I don't think that influences me in terms of how sophisticated I want to make the music."


text: The voice actors also showed appreciation for the adult and male fans. Andrea Libman, who voices Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, found that more people wanted to meet her as a result of the show and commented that among the fan community, "there's some really talented artists doing really amazing stuff". Tara Strong, who voices Twilight Sparkle, used Twitter to interact with fans and started a "Twilightlicious" meme trend. Ashleigh Ball, who voices Rainbow Dash and Applejack, attributes increased attention her band Hey Ocean! has received to the brony community. Michelle Creber, who voices Apple Bloom and provided the singing voice for Sweetie Belle, has collaborated with fan musicians in order to create new works.


text: John de Lancie was enthralled by the sudden surge in fandom from the brony community after the broadcast of a two-part second season premiere episode featuring his voice work as the main antagonist Discord (which Faust had created after a character previously played by de Lancie, Q from ""), and has embraced the attention. He compared the male fandom of a girl-oriented show to the large number of female fans of the original "Star Trek" series, and the parallels of what the fans did to support the respective shows. De Lancie helped to make a Kickstarter-funded documentary at the fourth BronyCon convention about the growing fandom, "". Faust, de Lancie and Strong were credited as executive producers on the project. The funding drive ended with over $320,000 in pledges, making it the second most funded film project on Kickstarter at the time. After its release, the project has announced plans to remake the documentary to incorporate additional footage taken at European fandom gatherings. This has been shown at film festivals in 2013 and released for home media distribution.


text: Similarly, Ball's surprise at the appreciation of the fandom led her to participate in another documentary, "A Brony Tale", directed by Brent Hodge, recording her participation at the January 2012 BronyCon event in New York City, as well as discussions with members of the fandom. The film, which was picked up for distribution by Morgan Spurlock, debuted to critical praise at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, and reached theatrical and home media markets in July 2014.


text: At times, portions of the brony fandom have reacted passionately to changes in the direction of the show, such as in the change to "The Last Roundup" episode involving the Derpy Hooves character. Similarly, the Season 3 finale episode "Magical Mystery Cure" ended with main character Twilight Sparkle transforming into a winged unicorn (alicorn) and being named a princess. This change was revealed prior to the episode's airing and a portion of the fandom were critical of the change, referring to it as a "jump the shark" moment for the series while others considered that it was a significant change of one of the show's more popular characters that most of the brony fandom could relate with. The showrunners stated in response that while Twilight's physical appearance would change, this would not otherwise alter her personality or the general concept of the show. On the announcement of the "" feature-length animated film, in which the pony characters are re-envisioned as human teenage girls attending high school, a large fraction of the adult fandom reacted negatively towards the premise. Several fans stated that this was a corporate play by Hasbro and veered away from the direction that Faust had envisioned for the show at its onset, while others commented on the clichéd aspect of a high school comedy, the overly thin appearance of the human characters, and other factors. The fan site Equestria Daily had issued a caution to its readers to not lash out at the show's creators who had also worked on the film, and other more predominant figures of the fandom urged others to continue to support the staff. Equestria Daily's Shaun Scotellaro considered the fandom's behavior to be "your typical overreaction to something changing in your favorite series".


text: Faust and the production team have acknowledged some of the fandom and fan-created elements of the show and incorporated them into the animation. Though Hasbro's priority is to deliver a child-friendly show, the writers and production staff, according to Linda Steiner, senior vice president of Hasbro Studios, "We will certainly, for fun, do the 'bronie' check to see if this could pass with them, but our job is to deliver to the kids first." Margaret Loesch, president and chief executive of Hub Network, said that they have kept their nods to the fandom to subtle hints. She added, "We haven't driven this movement, the fans have, and we don't want to get ahead of that. We want to nourish this phenomenon, not manipulate it." A writer for the show, Meghan McCarthy, said, "Some pop culture-y things are thrown in, but we don't want to do anything that's too 'wink wink'. It detracts from the story that we're trying to tell". Many of the nods to the older audience are drawn in by the storyboard artists and animators, who are challenged to populate scripted scenes with background ponies; McCarthy points to the example of ponies fashioned after the main characters from "The Big Lebowski" due to having to fill in space for scenes set in a bowling alley for the episode "The Cutie Pox".


text: In the first episode, a background gray Pegasus pony is shown in one scene with a cross-eyed stare, which was the result of an overlooked animator's joke. The 4chan boards quickly dubbed the character "Derpy Hooves" (based on the Internet slang word "derp") and created a more detailed personality for her, despite having minimal screen time. Faust responded to the fans, and the production team has kept the "Derpy" character with the cross-eyed look starting with "Feeling Pinkie Keen", where the team incorporated her into a slapstick sight gag. The character has since become a mascot of the fandom. According to supervising director Jayson Thiessen, the teams considered the character "like a little Easter egg for people to catch".


text: At the conclusion of the first season, one of the show's animators confirmed that "Derpy" would be a scripted background character in the second season, and was a part of several sight gags. In the original broadcast of the second season episode "The Last Roundup" as well as on the home media release "The Friendship Express", "Derpy" was called out by name by Rainbow Dash and was given lines (as voiced by St. Germain) and klutzy mannerisms as a direct call-out to the brony fandom. Though many fans appreciated the inclusion, some viewers had a negative response to the character, believing her portrayal insulted the mentally handicapped. Hasbro subsequently modified these scenes and while "Derpy" is still present in subsequent broadcast and digital versions of the episode, she is unnamed and a different voice is used. According to Hasbro's Nicole Agnello, "Some viewers felt that aspects of the episode 'The Last Roundup' did not stay true to the core message of friendship which is the heart and soul of the series. Hasbro Studios decided to make slight audio alterations to this single episode." Despite Hasbro's intentions, some members of the brony community were disappointed to which they made efforts to restore the original voice. "Derpy" remained in background cameos throughout other episodes in season 2 and 3. Within season 4, Derpy was re-introduced, remaining silent and unnamed but with her original wall-eyed look, as a side character in the main story of "Rainbow Falls". The appearance was planned as a big reveal for the brony fans, according to co-director Jim Miller, and that "she is here to stay" according to Hasbro's vice president for entertainment Mike Vogel. The Derpy character is used often on Hasbro's marketing of the show. For example, Hasbro's exclusive pony toy at the Comic-Con International and My Little Pony Fair in 2012 was based on "Derpy", and has the same cross-eye look.


text: Other non-speaking background characters that caught the attention of the fandom also had expanded roles. For example, a silent female unicorn pony character sporting neon colors and sunglasses and manning a DJ mixer that briefly appeared in "Suited for Success", was given the stage name "DJ P0N-3" in an online poll held by Equestria Daily. This name was reused in the "Equestria Girls" advertisement. The character also appeared as a DJ in the season 2 finale "A Canterlot Wedding – Part 2" and became part of the new release of "My Little Pony" toys in late 2012, as well as the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con exclusive figurine. The character additionally had an expanded yet also non-speaking role in the second "" film "".


text: Fans of the show also nicknamed a male pony character with a brown coat, messy brown mane and an hourglass cutie mark "Doctor Whooves" because of a purported likeness to David Tennant's portrayal of the Doctor from the long-running BBC television series "Doctor Who". The character had a minor speaking role in the episode "Call of the Cutie" and a brief role as a time-keeper in the episode "The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000". Other licensed media further carry the homage: Enterplay's trading card line associates the character, named "Time Turner", as dealing with "all things timey-wimey" around Ponyville, alluding to a famous quote from the episode "Blink", while one of the store-exclusive covers for the "Friendship Is Magic" comic set the Doctor Whooves character among many iconic "Doctor Who" elements. The character was openly named Doctor Hooves in "The Elements of Harmony: The Official Guidebook", published by Little, Brown and Company. Professor Colin Burnett of Washington University in St. Louis considered the adoption of these fan names and characteristics within the show as demonstration of co-creative collaboration that can exist in modern media, emphasized by unexpected demographics of bronies that helped to bolster the creators' success with the work.


text: As a tribute to the older fandom as well as all other fans of the show, the milestone 100th episode "", which was first broadcast in 2015, featured several of the background characters that the fans had made popular, including Derpy (now named "Muffins"), Doctor Whooves and DJ P0N-3 among others.


text: Hasbro and Hub Network (prior to its rebranding as Discovery Family) have also sought to market to bronies. Steiner said, "You develop the best show you can, and hope the humor will translate to a broader audience. But I've been in the business for 25 years and I've never seen anything like this." A company spokeswoman said that bronies are "a small group of "My Little Pony" fans who don't necessarily fit what one might expect to be the brand's target audience", while its core audience in the older market is predominantly females. Despite the bronies being an unusual and unexpected audience, Hasbro and Hub Network chose to "salute and embrace all the viewers who have embraced our brand", according to Margaret Loesch, CEO of Hub Network and former executive producer of the original "My Little Pony" animated series. Hasbro has allowed the fandom to be an organic movement leading to its growth and success, according to Stephen Davis, head of Hasbro Studios.


text: Before the brony fandom arose, Hasbro had introduced new "My Little Pony" toys, including convention-exclusives, at the San Diego Comic Con International. With a brony element in attendance, the convention-exclusive toys have reflected the brony culture; a large poster was published in 2011 that included several background characters that had attracted the fandom's interest. A toy of a pegasus pony character named Derpy Hooves was made available for both the convention and My Little Pony Fair in 2012. Toys "R" Us provided early, limited numbers of new toy based on the zebra character Zecora, due for release in late 2012 by Hasbro. Both Zecora and "Derpy" toys sold out within the first day of the convention. In 2014, Shapeways announced an association with Hasbro to create 3D printed versions of "Friendship Is Magic" characters, with fan artists creating and selling their designs under Hasbro's license and approval. Shapeways had previously published fan-financed and -created models without Hasbro's license before being asked to cease and desist such practice; the new approach with Hasbro's blessing has been seen as helping to break down the walls between content and fans in the age of social media.