23 definitions by p.redeckis
Palpatine was the supreme ruler of the most powerful tyrannical regime the galaxy had ever witnessed, yet his roots seem extremely humble, traced back to the peaceful world of Naboo.
Before his rise to power, Palpatine was an unassuming yet ambitious Senator in the Galactic Republic. Palpatine saw the Republic crumbling about him, torn apart by partisan bickering and corruption. All too common were those unscrupulous Senators taking advantage of the system, growing fat and wealthy on a bureaucracy too slow to catch them.
Palpatine's moment of opportunity came as a result of a trade embargo. The Trade Federation, in protest of government measures that would tax their outlying trade routes, blockaded and invaded Naboo. Naboo's planetary leader, Queen Amidala, rushed to Coruscant for Palpatine's aid. Together, the two pleaded to the Senate for intervention, only to see their request stalemated by Trade Federation filibustering. Frustrated by the government's inability to do anything, Queen Amidala acted upon Palpatine's suggestion, and called for a Vote of No Confidence in the Republic's leadership.
Chancellor Valorum was voted out of office, and Palpatine was soon nominated to succeed him. The crisis on Naboo prompted a strong sympathy vote, and Palpatine became Chancellor. He promised to reunite the disaffected, and bring order and justice to the government.
Little did anyone suspect how Palpatine had engineered his own rise to power. Hidden beneath a façade of wan smiles and smooth political speeches was a Sith Lord. In truth, Palpatine was well versed in the ways of the Force, having been apprentice to Darth Plagueis the Wise, a Sith Lord who was a master of arcane and unnatural knowledge. In true Sith tradition, Palpatine murdered his Master upon achieving the skill and ability to do so. He then took an apprentice himself, continuing the Sith order in absolute secrecy, right under the noses of the Republic and the Jedi.
With his cloaked Sith identity of Darth Sidious, Palpatine made contact with the scheming Neimoidians and plotted the invasion of his own homeworld. The resulting political fallout allowed Palpatine to step into the power vacuum left by Chancellor Valorum.
Despite Palpatine's vocal promises of reform, the Republic continued to be mired in strife and chaos. A decade after his nomination, Palpatine's Chancellery was faced with the challenge of a popular Separatist movement led by the charismatic leader, Count Dooku. Many in the galaxy feared that the conflict would escalate to full-scale warfare, but Palpatine was adamant that the crisis could be resolved by negotiation.
The Separatists didn't agree. Upon the discovery of a secret army of droids, it became apparent that the Separatists were on the verge of declaring war against the Republic. To counter this, the Republic needed a military, and Palpatine required the authority to activate the Republic's newly forged army of clones. To that end, Senators loyal to Palpatine motioned that the Chancellor be given emergency powers to deal with the Separatist threat.
With spoken regrets, Palpatine accepted the new mantle of power. He promised to return his absolute authority to the Senate after the emergency subsided. What no one realized was that the galaxy would undergo further upheaval, and that a state of crisis would ensure Palpatine's authority for decades.
The Clone Wars were just part of an intricate Sith plan concocted by Palpatine. After the demise of Darth Maul, he needed a new apprentice to carry forward his agenda. He did not have time to train an adept from the cradle, but instead plotted to turn an already proven Jedi warrior onto the path of the dark side. His target, the disillusioned Jedi Master Count Dooku. By appealing to Dooku's civility and disgust with Republic corruption, Palpatine was able to lure him to the dark side. When he became fully enmeshed in the Sith order and pledged his absolute loyalty to Palpatine, Dooku was granted the mantle of Darth Tyranus.
As Tyranus, Dooku put into motion the next phase of Sidious' fiendish plot. He was responsible for the creation of a clone army on the Republic's behalf, selecting a prime candidate as the clone template: Jango Fett. With his public persona of Dooku, he grew to become a political firebrand, leading a militant band of dissidents to wage open war against the Republic: a war the Republic was pleasantly surprised to find they were equipped to fight. The Clone Wars were a sham -- as Palpatine secretly held authority over both sides of the conflict.
The indications of his future regime were subtle at first. Palpatine's term as Chancellor ended during the rise of the Separatists, but that crisis allowed him to extend his stay in office. Once the Clone Wars erupted, the Senate's inability to efficiently wage war on scattered fronts forced him to enact executive decree after executive decree. He added amendments to the constitution funneling more power to him, effectively circumventing the bureaucracy of the Senate.
The public and the Senate willingly gave up their rights and freedoms in the name of security. Under Palpatine's guidance, the war would be won, and the Republic would be safe. The monstrous specter of General Grievous leading an assault ensured that few questioned Palpatine's growing authority.
The Jedi Council was among the wary. As an instrument of the Senate and the people, the Jedi order resisted Palpatine's directcontrol. This tension grew as the war escalated. Some in the Senate also quietly whispered their misgiving. Palpatine knew of a delegation of concerned Senators, and he would deal with them in time.
During the Clone Wars, Anakin Skywalker grew to be a legendary hero among the Jedi. His power was remarkable. Palpatine, who had been fostering a friendship with the unique lad since his childhood, felt the time was right. Darth Tyranus had served his purpose. Skywalker would be the next Sith apprentice.
As a bold endgame to his lengthy plot, Palpatine was architect of his own abduction by the fearsome General Grievous, military commander of the Separatist forces. The Confederacy fleet hammered Coruscant's defenses, and absconded with the captive Chancellor. Predictably, the Jedi order's finest heroes -- Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi -- were dispatched to rescue Palpatine. Aboard their tiny starfighters they infiltrated Grievous' flagship, and worked their way to the shackled Chancellor.
Count Dooku stood in their path. Once again, lightsaber blades crossed as Kenobi and Skywalker teamed up against Dooku. The aged Sith Lord was able to outmaneuver Kenobi, and knocked the seasoned Jedi unconscious. Without his mentor's guidance, Anakin attacked Dooku alone. The Sith Lord goaded Anakin's rage, and the young Jedi took revenge against the warrior who had severed his arm years before. Skywalker cut off both of Dooku's hands, and had the Separatist leader kneeling before his lightsaber blade.
Palpatine recognized the dark side in Anakin and nurtured it. He encouraged Anakin to kill Dooku. Skywalker's blade seared through flesh and bone, and Dooku's severed head soon littered the deck. Though Anakin instantly regretted the act for not being of the Jedi way, Palpatine was quick to console him, and absolve him of any guilt. After all, Dooku was too dangerous to be taken alive, rationalized Palpatine.
It was not the first time Palpatine had encouraged Anakin's unfettered abilities. A young man of Anakin's abilities was constantly chafing under the strict confines of the Jedi Code, and was often being reprimanded for doing what he felt was right. Palpatine never had any admonitions. He was always in Anakin's corner.
Skywalker would remember this as the political fallout from Dooku's death and the continued Clone Wars tugged him in different directions. The Jedi Council had grown wary of Palpatine, and was critical the Chancellor's decrees that redirected power away from the Senate and the constitution and into his office. Palpatine grew to naturally distrust the Council. He appointed Anakin Skywalker to act as his personal representative on the Jedi Council. Surprisingly, the Jedi Council agreed to this appointment -- but only in the hopes of turning Anakin into their spy on the Chancellor.
Palpatine exploited this distrust and confusion plaguing Anakin. Skywalker grew to feel that the Chancellor was the only one not asking something of him, the only one not speaking through veiled agendas. It was in this position of trust that Palpatine recounted a Sith legend -- the story of Darth Plagueis the Wise. In the relative privacy of his viewing box in the Galaxies Opera House, Palpatine wistfully recalled the little heard legend of the powerful Sith Lord so knowledgeable in the arcane and unnatural arts that he could even stop those he loved from dying. At the time, Anakin Skywalker was plagued with visions of the death of his wife. He feared them to be prophetic, like so many of his visions. Skywalker wanted to know more about this ability -- it was unknown to the Jedi, supposedly only discovered by the Sith. Knowing that he had the boy sufficiently intrigued, Palpatine later dropped his guise. He revealed to Anakin that he was in fact a Sith Lord, but also that he was the path to the power that could save Padmé Amidala from dying.
Anakin was deeply conflicted. Respecting his loyalty to the Jedi Order, he informed senior Jedi Council member Mace Windu of the stunning revelation. Windu arranged a group of Jedi Masters to arrest the Chancellor. Palpatine did not go quietly.
In the inner recesses of the Chancellor's private office, the Jedi confronted the Chancellor. Palpatine produced a lightsaber hidden in his sleeve and let the dark side of the Force flow through him. It granted him inhuman dexterity and speed, agility enough to quickly kill three Jedi Masters and force the mighty Mace Windu back. The two dueled, transforming the office of politics into an arena of lightsaber combat. Windu overpowered Palpatine the instant Anakin Skywalker came running into the offices.
Skywalker witnessed a stunning sight: the Chancellor, cornered, with Windu looming over him with his lightsaber blade extended. Palpatine unleashed a torrent of Sith lightning at the Jedi Master, but Windu was able to deflect it back at the Chancellor. The evil energies twisted Palpatine's face as they flowed through him, scarring and disfiguring his once handsome features. His eyes burned yellow, his voice grew ragged and deep, and he became a well of dark side energies.
Palpatine slumped in the corner, seemingly too weak to continue the lightning assault. Fearing the Chancellor to be too powerful and too well connected, Windu decided he could not be taken alive. Before Windu could take justice into his own hands, though, Anakin sprung into action. He cut off Windu's weapon hand with his lightsaber. Defenseless, Windu was then bombarded by Palpatine's dark side lightning. With the Jedi Master dead and Anakin Skywalker haven taken his first irreversible step to the darkside, Sidious grinned.
Skywalker knelt before Darth Sidious, and the Sith Lord bestowed upon him the title of Darth Vader. He next tasked his new apprentice to raze the Jedi Temple before the treacherous Jedi could strike back at them. Entrenched in the dark side, Vader marched to the temple with a column of loyal clone troopers, gutting the sacred edifice from within. Meanwhile, Sidious took care of the Jedi scattered across the galaxy waging the Clone Wars.
Palpatine enacted Order 66, a coded command that identified the Jedi Knights as traitors to the Republic. He broadcast this order to the clone commanders on the various distant battlefronts, and the loyal soldiers killed their Jedi generals in cold blood.
The next day Palpatine called for a special session of the Galactic Senate. Despite his disfigurement, he appeared before the assembled politicians of the Republic, and gave a stirring speech of how he narrowly escaped a treacherous Jedi rebellion. He assured the people of the Republic that his resolve had not faltered. He had routed out the treachery that had entangled the Republic in the Clone Wars. He would flense the corruption from the bloated bureaucracy that strangled the august government and reform it, as a new, more powerful, more secure institution.
That day, before thunderous applause, Palpatine declared himself Emperor.
Palpatine instituted a military build-up unprecedented in galactic history. He created the New Order, a Galactic Empire that ruled by tyranny.
During the Galactic Civil War, Palpatine ruled with an iron fist. He disbanded the Imperial Senate, and passed control down to the regional governors and the military. During the Hoth campaign, Palpatine expressed to Vader his concerns over Luke Skywalker, a young Rebel powerful in the Force. Vader suggested that the two convert the youth to the dark side of the Force, an idea the Emperor seconded.
The Emperor was a scheming ruler, planning events far in the future, using the Force to foresee the results. Palpatine allowed Rebel spies to learn of the location of the second Death Star, and foresaw their strike team and fleet assault. Palpatine crafted an elaborate trap that was to be the end of the Rebellion. He also concentrated on converting Luke Skywalker to the dark side of the Force, even at the expense of sacrificing Vader. In the Death Star, high above the Battle of Endor, Luke refused the Emperor's newfound dark side power, and so Palpatine used his deadly Force lightning to attack the young Jedi. Luke almost died in the assault, but his father, Darth Vader, returned to the light side of the Force, and hurled the Emperor into the Death Star's reactor core, killing him.
Palpatine was a gnarled, old man. An ancient-looking human, he had pale skin, and searing, sickly yellow eyes. He wore a heavy dark cloak, and carried a glossy black cane.
Before his rise to power, Palpatine was an unassuming yet ambitious Senator in the Galactic Republic. Palpatine saw the Republic crumbling about him, torn apart by partisan bickering and corruption. All too common were those unscrupulous Senators taking advantage of the system, growing fat and wealthy on a bureaucracy too slow to catch them.
Palpatine's moment of opportunity came as a result of a trade embargo. The Trade Federation, in protest of government measures that would tax their outlying trade routes, blockaded and invaded Naboo. Naboo's planetary leader, Queen Amidala, rushed to Coruscant for Palpatine's aid. Together, the two pleaded to the Senate for intervention, only to see their request stalemated by Trade Federation filibustering. Frustrated by the government's inability to do anything, Queen Amidala acted upon Palpatine's suggestion, and called for a Vote of No Confidence in the Republic's leadership.
Chancellor Valorum was voted out of office, and Palpatine was soon nominated to succeed him. The crisis on Naboo prompted a strong sympathy vote, and Palpatine became Chancellor. He promised to reunite the disaffected, and bring order and justice to the government.
Little did anyone suspect how Palpatine had engineered his own rise to power. Hidden beneath a façade of wan smiles and smooth political speeches was a Sith Lord. In truth, Palpatine was well versed in the ways of the Force, having been apprentice to Darth Plagueis the Wise, a Sith Lord who was a master of arcane and unnatural knowledge. In true Sith tradition, Palpatine murdered his Master upon achieving the skill and ability to do so. He then took an apprentice himself, continuing the Sith order in absolute secrecy, right under the noses of the Republic and the Jedi.
With his cloaked Sith identity of Darth Sidious, Palpatine made contact with the scheming Neimoidians and plotted the invasion of his own homeworld. The resulting political fallout allowed Palpatine to step into the power vacuum left by Chancellor Valorum.
Despite Palpatine's vocal promises of reform, the Republic continued to be mired in strife and chaos. A decade after his nomination, Palpatine's Chancellery was faced with the challenge of a popular Separatist movement led by the charismatic leader, Count Dooku. Many in the galaxy feared that the conflict would escalate to full-scale warfare, but Palpatine was adamant that the crisis could be resolved by negotiation.
The Separatists didn't agree. Upon the discovery of a secret army of droids, it became apparent that the Separatists were on the verge of declaring war against the Republic. To counter this, the Republic needed a military, and Palpatine required the authority to activate the Republic's newly forged army of clones. To that end, Senators loyal to Palpatine motioned that the Chancellor be given emergency powers to deal with the Separatist threat.
With spoken regrets, Palpatine accepted the new mantle of power. He promised to return his absolute authority to the Senate after the emergency subsided. What no one realized was that the galaxy would undergo further upheaval, and that a state of crisis would ensure Palpatine's authority for decades.
The Clone Wars were just part of an intricate Sith plan concocted by Palpatine. After the demise of Darth Maul, he needed a new apprentice to carry forward his agenda. He did not have time to train an adept from the cradle, but instead plotted to turn an already proven Jedi warrior onto the path of the dark side. His target, the disillusioned Jedi Master Count Dooku. By appealing to Dooku's civility and disgust with Republic corruption, Palpatine was able to lure him to the dark side. When he became fully enmeshed in the Sith order and pledged his absolute loyalty to Palpatine, Dooku was granted the mantle of Darth Tyranus.
As Tyranus, Dooku put into motion the next phase of Sidious' fiendish plot. He was responsible for the creation of a clone army on the Republic's behalf, selecting a prime candidate as the clone template: Jango Fett. With his public persona of Dooku, he grew to become a political firebrand, leading a militant band of dissidents to wage open war against the Republic: a war the Republic was pleasantly surprised to find they were equipped to fight. The Clone Wars were a sham -- as Palpatine secretly held authority over both sides of the conflict.
The indications of his future regime were subtle at first. Palpatine's term as Chancellor ended during the rise of the Separatists, but that crisis allowed him to extend his stay in office. Once the Clone Wars erupted, the Senate's inability to efficiently wage war on scattered fronts forced him to enact executive decree after executive decree. He added amendments to the constitution funneling more power to him, effectively circumventing the bureaucracy of the Senate.
The public and the Senate willingly gave up their rights and freedoms in the name of security. Under Palpatine's guidance, the war would be won, and the Republic would be safe. The monstrous specter of General Grievous leading an assault ensured that few questioned Palpatine's growing authority.
The Jedi Council was among the wary. As an instrument of the Senate and the people, the Jedi order resisted Palpatine's directcontrol. This tension grew as the war escalated. Some in the Senate also quietly whispered their misgiving. Palpatine knew of a delegation of concerned Senators, and he would deal with them in time.
During the Clone Wars, Anakin Skywalker grew to be a legendary hero among the Jedi. His power was remarkable. Palpatine, who had been fostering a friendship with the unique lad since his childhood, felt the time was right. Darth Tyranus had served his purpose. Skywalker would be the next Sith apprentice.
As a bold endgame to his lengthy plot, Palpatine was architect of his own abduction by the fearsome General Grievous, military commander of the Separatist forces. The Confederacy fleet hammered Coruscant's defenses, and absconded with the captive Chancellor. Predictably, the Jedi order's finest heroes -- Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi -- were dispatched to rescue Palpatine. Aboard their tiny starfighters they infiltrated Grievous' flagship, and worked their way to the shackled Chancellor.
Count Dooku stood in their path. Once again, lightsaber blades crossed as Kenobi and Skywalker teamed up against Dooku. The aged Sith Lord was able to outmaneuver Kenobi, and knocked the seasoned Jedi unconscious. Without his mentor's guidance, Anakin attacked Dooku alone. The Sith Lord goaded Anakin's rage, and the young Jedi took revenge against the warrior who had severed his arm years before. Skywalker cut off both of Dooku's hands, and had the Separatist leader kneeling before his lightsaber blade.
Palpatine recognized the dark side in Anakin and nurtured it. He encouraged Anakin to kill Dooku. Skywalker's blade seared through flesh and bone, and Dooku's severed head soon littered the deck. Though Anakin instantly regretted the act for not being of the Jedi way, Palpatine was quick to console him, and absolve him of any guilt. After all, Dooku was too dangerous to be taken alive, rationalized Palpatine.
It was not the first time Palpatine had encouraged Anakin's unfettered abilities. A young man of Anakin's abilities was constantly chafing under the strict confines of the Jedi Code, and was often being reprimanded for doing what he felt was right. Palpatine never had any admonitions. He was always in Anakin's corner.
Skywalker would remember this as the political fallout from Dooku's death and the continued Clone Wars tugged him in different directions. The Jedi Council had grown wary of Palpatine, and was critical the Chancellor's decrees that redirected power away from the Senate and the constitution and into his office. Palpatine grew to naturally distrust the Council. He appointed Anakin Skywalker to act as his personal representative on the Jedi Council. Surprisingly, the Jedi Council agreed to this appointment -- but only in the hopes of turning Anakin into their spy on the Chancellor.
Palpatine exploited this distrust and confusion plaguing Anakin. Skywalker grew to feel that the Chancellor was the only one not asking something of him, the only one not speaking through veiled agendas. It was in this position of trust that Palpatine recounted a Sith legend -- the story of Darth Plagueis the Wise. In the relative privacy of his viewing box in the Galaxies Opera House, Palpatine wistfully recalled the little heard legend of the powerful Sith Lord so knowledgeable in the arcane and unnatural arts that he could even stop those he loved from dying. At the time, Anakin Skywalker was plagued with visions of the death of his wife. He feared them to be prophetic, like so many of his visions. Skywalker wanted to know more about this ability -- it was unknown to the Jedi, supposedly only discovered by the Sith. Knowing that he had the boy sufficiently intrigued, Palpatine later dropped his guise. He revealed to Anakin that he was in fact a Sith Lord, but also that he was the path to the power that could save Padmé Amidala from dying.
Anakin was deeply conflicted. Respecting his loyalty to the Jedi Order, he informed senior Jedi Council member Mace Windu of the stunning revelation. Windu arranged a group of Jedi Masters to arrest the Chancellor. Palpatine did not go quietly.
In the inner recesses of the Chancellor's private office, the Jedi confronted the Chancellor. Palpatine produced a lightsaber hidden in his sleeve and let the dark side of the Force flow through him. It granted him inhuman dexterity and speed, agility enough to quickly kill three Jedi Masters and force the mighty Mace Windu back. The two dueled, transforming the office of politics into an arena of lightsaber combat. Windu overpowered Palpatine the instant Anakin Skywalker came running into the offices.
Skywalker witnessed a stunning sight: the Chancellor, cornered, with Windu looming over him with his lightsaber blade extended. Palpatine unleashed a torrent of Sith lightning at the Jedi Master, but Windu was able to deflect it back at the Chancellor. The evil energies twisted Palpatine's face as they flowed through him, scarring and disfiguring his once handsome features. His eyes burned yellow, his voice grew ragged and deep, and he became a well of dark side energies.
Palpatine slumped in the corner, seemingly too weak to continue the lightning assault. Fearing the Chancellor to be too powerful and too well connected, Windu decided he could not be taken alive. Before Windu could take justice into his own hands, though, Anakin sprung into action. He cut off Windu's weapon hand with his lightsaber. Defenseless, Windu was then bombarded by Palpatine's dark side lightning. With the Jedi Master dead and Anakin Skywalker haven taken his first irreversible step to the darkside, Sidious grinned.
Skywalker knelt before Darth Sidious, and the Sith Lord bestowed upon him the title of Darth Vader. He next tasked his new apprentice to raze the Jedi Temple before the treacherous Jedi could strike back at them. Entrenched in the dark side, Vader marched to the temple with a column of loyal clone troopers, gutting the sacred edifice from within. Meanwhile, Sidious took care of the Jedi scattered across the galaxy waging the Clone Wars.
Palpatine enacted Order 66, a coded command that identified the Jedi Knights as traitors to the Republic. He broadcast this order to the clone commanders on the various distant battlefronts, and the loyal soldiers killed their Jedi generals in cold blood.
The next day Palpatine called for a special session of the Galactic Senate. Despite his disfigurement, he appeared before the assembled politicians of the Republic, and gave a stirring speech of how he narrowly escaped a treacherous Jedi rebellion. He assured the people of the Republic that his resolve had not faltered. He had routed out the treachery that had entangled the Republic in the Clone Wars. He would flense the corruption from the bloated bureaucracy that strangled the august government and reform it, as a new, more powerful, more secure institution.
That day, before thunderous applause, Palpatine declared himself Emperor.
Palpatine instituted a military build-up unprecedented in galactic history. He created the New Order, a Galactic Empire that ruled by tyranny.
During the Galactic Civil War, Palpatine ruled with an iron fist. He disbanded the Imperial Senate, and passed control down to the regional governors and the military. During the Hoth campaign, Palpatine expressed to Vader his concerns over Luke Skywalker, a young Rebel powerful in the Force. Vader suggested that the two convert the youth to the dark side of the Force, an idea the Emperor seconded.
The Emperor was a scheming ruler, planning events far in the future, using the Force to foresee the results. Palpatine allowed Rebel spies to learn of the location of the second Death Star, and foresaw their strike team and fleet assault. Palpatine crafted an elaborate trap that was to be the end of the Rebellion. He also concentrated on converting Luke Skywalker to the dark side of the Force, even at the expense of sacrificing Vader. In the Death Star, high above the Battle of Endor, Luke refused the Emperor's newfound dark side power, and so Palpatine used his deadly Force lightning to attack the young Jedi. Luke almost died in the assault, but his father, Darth Vader, returned to the light side of the Force, and hurled the Emperor into the Death Star's reactor core, killing him.
Palpatine was a gnarled, old man. An ancient-looking human, he had pale skin, and searing, sickly yellow eyes. He wore a heavy dark cloak, and carried a glossy black cane.
by p.redeckis June 7, 2006
It was a great blow to the Jedi order when Count Dooku voluntarily renounced his commission. A strong-minded man, Dooku's ideas were often out of step with those of the Jedi Council, despite the fact that his former mentor, Yoda, held a lofty position in that governing body. His challenging views were often echoed by his former Padawan, Qui-Gon Jinn, another Jedi who would on occasion defy the Council.
Dooku was a political idealist. He felt that the Jedi weakened themselves by serving an institution as corrupt as the Republic. After his departure, he disappeared for years, re-emerging as a political firebrand fanning the flames of rebellion in the galaxy. In an alarmingly short time, Dooku rallied thousands of systems to his cause, building a growing Separatist movement that threatened to split the Republic.
Opportunists working in Dooku's name would start flashpoints of violence, and it was all the Jedi could do to maintain order in these turbulent times. For all the strife, the Jedi Council refused to believe that Dooku was personally responsible for the worst of the conflicts, believing that his Jedi training elevated him above such acts.
But the Jedi didn't realize Dooku's secret. Behind a veneer of elegant charisma and well-tabled political arguments, Dooku had been corrupted by the power of the dark side. After his departure from the Jedi order, Dooku was seduced to the dark side by Darth Sidious, the Dark Lord of the Sith. By Sith tradition, Dooku adopted the name Darth Tyranus and added deceit and treachery to his already formidable array of weapons.
In both guises, Dooku began recruiting agents for what would eventually amount to the death of the Old Republic. As Tyranus, he contacted the notorious bounty hunter Jango Fett to become the template for a hidden clone army on Kamino. As Dooku, he appealed to the greed of the galaxy's most powerful commerce barons to consolidate their forces to challenge the Republic.
Deep within the mighty spires of Geonosis, Dooku chaired a meeting of the minds to formally create the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Separatist Senators alongside representatives from the Commerce Guild, the Trade Federation, the Corporate Alliance, the InterGalactic Banking Clan and the Techno Union pooled their resources together to form the largest military force in the galaxy. The Separatists were ready for war.
The Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi discovered the treasonous meeting and warned the Republic, but not without being captured. Dooku met with Kenobi in the Geonosian dungeons, and revealed to Obi-Wan the truth about the Republic -- that it was, in fact, becoming increasingly under the control of Darth Sidious. Distrusting of Dooku's words, Obi-Wan refused to believe and refused to join Dooku in rooting out the corruption.
Kenobi was soon joined by Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala, who had come to Geonosis in an ill-fated attempt to rescue him. Dooku placed the three captive heroes in an execution arena, but their deaths were staved off by the timely arrival of Jedi reinforcements.
The droid armies of the Separatists engaged the Jedi, and later the newly crafted Clone Army of the Republic. Dooku attempted to escape but was intercepted by Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. The two Jedi challenged Dooku to a lightsaber duel, but Dooku's masterful skills in old-style lightsaber combat made short work of the younger combatants. As they lay wounded, another Jedi entered into Dooku's secret hangar.
The Jedi Master Yoda confronted Dooku. The two engaged in a titanic struggle of Force powers, neither besting the other. It came down to a contest of lightsabers. In a blurring tangle of speed and light, the two masters of the Force dueled. Unable to find an advantage, Dooku distracted Yoda by endangering Kenobi and Skywalker with a toppling crane. As Yoda used the Force to save his fellow Jedi, Dooku fled.
Dooku escaped, with the Jedi aware of his succumbing to the dark side, but yet still unaware of his Sith allegiance. Aboard his exotic interstellar sail ship, Dooku traveled to a decrepit warehouse district on Coruscant. There, he met with his master, Darth Sidious, and delivered the good news: the Clone Wars had begun.
For three long years, warfare ripped apart the galaxy. The Confederacy and the Republic did combat on a wide variety of planets. Military command of the droid armies fell to General Grievous, the deadly cyborg general that Dooku partially trained in the Jedi arts. Whereas Dooku handled a lightsaber with finesse and accuracy, Grievous used his bizarre mechanical anatomy to wield up to four lightsabers in a blurring haze of brutal lacerating energy.
At the end of the Clone Wars, the Separatists staged a daring strike against the Republic. The Confederacy had penetrated Coruscant's defenses and absconded away with the kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine.
It was all a ruse: Palpatine was in fact Darth Sidious, and Dooku was his apprentice. But Dooku was unaware of Palpatine's master plan. The kidnapping was a test of a prospective new Sith apprentice. Blazing onto General Grievous' flagship -- the vehicle of escape for Dooku and his "captive" -- were the Jedi heroes Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. Once again Dooku dueled with the Jedi pair. He bested Kenobi, knocking the Jedi unconscious with a brutal Force push, but was unable to overpower Skywalker. Goading the fiery-tempered young man throughout the duel, Dooku thought he had the upper hand until Anakin outmaneuvered him.
Skywalker severed both of Dooku's hands and snatched the Sith Lord's red-bladed weapon. Dooku fell to his knees before Skywalker, who was now holding two lightsabers at his throat. "Kill him," advised Palpatine -- and Dooku fully realized that treachery was the way of the Sith. He was expendable, Dooku realized. Skywalker was the true prize, the gifted apprentice, the new Sith.
This understanding awakened in him as Skywalker crossed his blades, severing Dooku's head.
Dooku was a political idealist. He felt that the Jedi weakened themselves by serving an institution as corrupt as the Republic. After his departure, he disappeared for years, re-emerging as a political firebrand fanning the flames of rebellion in the galaxy. In an alarmingly short time, Dooku rallied thousands of systems to his cause, building a growing Separatist movement that threatened to split the Republic.
Opportunists working in Dooku's name would start flashpoints of violence, and it was all the Jedi could do to maintain order in these turbulent times. For all the strife, the Jedi Council refused to believe that Dooku was personally responsible for the worst of the conflicts, believing that his Jedi training elevated him above such acts.
But the Jedi didn't realize Dooku's secret. Behind a veneer of elegant charisma and well-tabled political arguments, Dooku had been corrupted by the power of the dark side. After his departure from the Jedi order, Dooku was seduced to the dark side by Darth Sidious, the Dark Lord of the Sith. By Sith tradition, Dooku adopted the name Darth Tyranus and added deceit and treachery to his already formidable array of weapons.
In both guises, Dooku began recruiting agents for what would eventually amount to the death of the Old Republic. As Tyranus, he contacted the notorious bounty hunter Jango Fett to become the template for a hidden clone army on Kamino. As Dooku, he appealed to the greed of the galaxy's most powerful commerce barons to consolidate their forces to challenge the Republic.
Deep within the mighty spires of Geonosis, Dooku chaired a meeting of the minds to formally create the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Separatist Senators alongside representatives from the Commerce Guild, the Trade Federation, the Corporate Alliance, the InterGalactic Banking Clan and the Techno Union pooled their resources together to form the largest military force in the galaxy. The Separatists were ready for war.
The Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi discovered the treasonous meeting and warned the Republic, but not without being captured. Dooku met with Kenobi in the Geonosian dungeons, and revealed to Obi-Wan the truth about the Republic -- that it was, in fact, becoming increasingly under the control of Darth Sidious. Distrusting of Dooku's words, Obi-Wan refused to believe and refused to join Dooku in rooting out the corruption.
Kenobi was soon joined by Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala, who had come to Geonosis in an ill-fated attempt to rescue him. Dooku placed the three captive heroes in an execution arena, but their deaths were staved off by the timely arrival of Jedi reinforcements.
The droid armies of the Separatists engaged the Jedi, and later the newly crafted Clone Army of the Republic. Dooku attempted to escape but was intercepted by Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. The two Jedi challenged Dooku to a lightsaber duel, but Dooku's masterful skills in old-style lightsaber combat made short work of the younger combatants. As they lay wounded, another Jedi entered into Dooku's secret hangar.
The Jedi Master Yoda confronted Dooku. The two engaged in a titanic struggle of Force powers, neither besting the other. It came down to a contest of lightsabers. In a blurring tangle of speed and light, the two masters of the Force dueled. Unable to find an advantage, Dooku distracted Yoda by endangering Kenobi and Skywalker with a toppling crane. As Yoda used the Force to save his fellow Jedi, Dooku fled.
Dooku escaped, with the Jedi aware of his succumbing to the dark side, but yet still unaware of his Sith allegiance. Aboard his exotic interstellar sail ship, Dooku traveled to a decrepit warehouse district on Coruscant. There, he met with his master, Darth Sidious, and delivered the good news: the Clone Wars had begun.
For three long years, warfare ripped apart the galaxy. The Confederacy and the Republic did combat on a wide variety of planets. Military command of the droid armies fell to General Grievous, the deadly cyborg general that Dooku partially trained in the Jedi arts. Whereas Dooku handled a lightsaber with finesse and accuracy, Grievous used his bizarre mechanical anatomy to wield up to four lightsabers in a blurring haze of brutal lacerating energy.
At the end of the Clone Wars, the Separatists staged a daring strike against the Republic. The Confederacy had penetrated Coruscant's defenses and absconded away with the kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine.
It was all a ruse: Palpatine was in fact Darth Sidious, and Dooku was his apprentice. But Dooku was unaware of Palpatine's master plan. The kidnapping was a test of a prospective new Sith apprentice. Blazing onto General Grievous' flagship -- the vehicle of escape for Dooku and his "captive" -- were the Jedi heroes Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. Once again Dooku dueled with the Jedi pair. He bested Kenobi, knocking the Jedi unconscious with a brutal Force push, but was unable to overpower Skywalker. Goading the fiery-tempered young man throughout the duel, Dooku thought he had the upper hand until Anakin outmaneuvered him.
Skywalker severed both of Dooku's hands and snatched the Sith Lord's red-bladed weapon. Dooku fell to his knees before Skywalker, who was now holding two lightsabers at his throat. "Kill him," advised Palpatine -- and Dooku fully realized that treachery was the way of the Sith. He was expendable, Dooku realized. Skywalker was the true prize, the gifted apprentice, the new Sith.
This understanding awakened in him as Skywalker crossed his blades, severing Dooku's head.
by p.redeckis June 7, 2006
Phil Hartman (September 24, 1948 – May 28, 1998) was a Canadian-born American graphic artist, writer, actor, voice artist and comedian.
Early life
Philip Edward Hartmann was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada to Rupert and Doris Hartmann; the family was of German Catholic descent.
Hartman's family migrated to the United States in the 1950s, and Hartman attended Westchester High School and Cal State Northridge in Los Angeles, California, becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen in the early-1990s.
The exact timing of his switch from "Hartmann" to "Hartman" is unknown, but all of his acting credits after 1986 were billed under the surname "Hartman".
Hartman and his wife Brynn had two children, Sean Edward Hartman (born 1989) and Birgen Hartman (born 1992).
Early career
Looking for what he described as "a psychological release valve", he joined the California-based comedy group The Groundlings in 1975. Hartman met comedian Paul Reubens while working with the group and the two became friends, often writing and working on material together.
One such collaboration was the character of Pee-wee Herman and the script of the feature film Pee-wee's Big Adventure. Hartman also met Jon Lovitz while with The Groundlings.
Hartman worked part time as a graphic artist, including designing album covers for popular rock bands. Hartman's covers include:
Poco's 1978 album Legend (photo)
Firesign Theatre's 1980 album Fighting Clowns (photo)
Three album covers for the band America
History: Greatest Hits in 1975 (photo)
Harbor in 1977 (photo)
Silent Letter in 1979 (photo).
He was also the designer for the logo of Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Television career
In 1986, Hartman joined the cast of NBC's popular variety show Saturday Night Live and stayed for eight seasons, which was a record at the time. Hartman was known for his impressions, which included Ronald Reagan, Charlton Heston, Frank Sinatra, Telly Savalas, Ed McMahon, Michael Caine, Jack Nicholson, Barbara Bush, Burt Reynolds, Phil Donahue, and former president Bill Clinton, which was perhaps his best-known impression. His other Saturday Night Live characters included Frankenstein and Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. He returned twice to host the show following his 1994 departure and was honored at the show's 25th anniversary special in 1999 by the members of the cast who had started their careers on the show the same year: Jan Hooks, Mike Myers, Nora Dunn, Dennis Miller, Kevin Nealon, Jon Lovitz, and Victoria Jackson.
Also in 1986, Hartman was chosen to play the role of Captain Carl, one of Pee-Wee Herman's close friends and famed sea captain in the first season of Pee-Wee's Playhouse.
From 1991 to 1998, Hartman also provided the voices for a number of characters on the popular animated series, The Simpsons, including dubious attorney Lionel Hutz, B-movie actor Troy McClure, and slippery monorail shyster Lyle Lanley; Hartman expressed interest in making a live action version of this character, but the film was never made. In the episode "Selma's Choice", he lent his voice to three different characters, one of which being the aforementioned Hutz.
In 1994, Hartman left SNL. His last scene on Saturday Night Live consisted of him consoling Chris Farley.
In 1995, he became one of the stars of the NBC sitcom NewsRadio, where he portrayed fatuous radio news anchor Bill McNeal. Many have credited the cancellation of the show with Hartman's passing, citing that the humor was thrown off balance despite the casting of Lovitz (who replaced Hartman).
Movies
Hartman's filmography includes often secondary or supporting roles in such feature films as Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Greed, Houseguest, Coneheads, Stuart Saves His Family (voice only), Sgt. Bilko, So I Married an Axe Murderer, CB4, Jingle All the Way and Small Soldiers, the last of which would become his final silver screen appearance and was thus dedicated to him.
His last role was in the English version of Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service, where he provided the voice of Jiji the cat. The movie was dedicated to his memory.
Video games
Hartman provided the voice of Captain Blasto in the PlayStation video game Blasto. Although there were plans for a sequel to the game, the sequel was immediately cancelled when Hartman died.
Murder
Hartman was murdered on May 28, 1998, in his Encino, California home, at the age of 49. As he slept, Hartman was shot twice in the head by his wife, Brynn, who, hours later, turned the gun on herself with a shot to the head. The reasons for the murder-suicide are unknown, although friends of the Hartmans speculated in the press that the combination of their marriage problems and Brynn's drug addictions probably contributed.
Hartman's murder caused considerable mourning in Hollywood. NewsRadio produced a special episode where the cast sincerely and tearfully mourned the death of Hartman's on-screen counterpart. Jon Lovitz joined the show in his place and stayed with it until its ultimate cancellation. Lovitz had been a Saturday Night Live cast member alongside Hartman for four seasons, and had also worked with Hartman when the both had cameos in the 1986 comedy Three Amigos.
Out of respect, The Simpsons retired Hartman's characters, rather than finding another voice actor. The episode "Bart the Mother" marked his final appearance on the show, and was dedicated to him.
At the time of his death, Hartman was preparing to voice several characters on Simpsons creator Matt Groening's other animated series Futurama, among them Zapp Brannigan. Groening wrote the character specifically for him, but Hartman had nonetheless insisted on auditioning. After he died, the lead character, Philip J. Fry, was named in his honor. Billy West (the voice of Fry, among many other Futurama characters) took his place. West's original audition formed the basis of Brannigan's final voice. By coincidence, however, his portrayal bears many similarities to Hartman's own vocal stylings.
Hartman was posthumously nominated for an Emmy Award for his portrayal of Bill McNeal in NewsRadio, but lost out to actor David Hyde Pierce. Upon learning Hartman did not win the award, NewsRadio co-star Dave Foley joked: "What's this guy gotta do to win an Emmy?"
Early life
Philip Edward Hartmann was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada to Rupert and Doris Hartmann; the family was of German Catholic descent.
Hartman's family migrated to the United States in the 1950s, and Hartman attended Westchester High School and Cal State Northridge in Los Angeles, California, becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen in the early-1990s.
The exact timing of his switch from "Hartmann" to "Hartman" is unknown, but all of his acting credits after 1986 were billed under the surname "Hartman".
Hartman and his wife Brynn had two children, Sean Edward Hartman (born 1989) and Birgen Hartman (born 1992).
Early career
Looking for what he described as "a psychological release valve", he joined the California-based comedy group The Groundlings in 1975. Hartman met comedian Paul Reubens while working with the group and the two became friends, often writing and working on material together.
One such collaboration was the character of Pee-wee Herman and the script of the feature film Pee-wee's Big Adventure. Hartman also met Jon Lovitz while with The Groundlings.
Hartman worked part time as a graphic artist, including designing album covers for popular rock bands. Hartman's covers include:
Poco's 1978 album Legend (photo)
Firesign Theatre's 1980 album Fighting Clowns (photo)
Three album covers for the band America
History: Greatest Hits in 1975 (photo)
Harbor in 1977 (photo)
Silent Letter in 1979 (photo).
He was also the designer for the logo of Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Television career
In 1986, Hartman joined the cast of NBC's popular variety show Saturday Night Live and stayed for eight seasons, which was a record at the time. Hartman was known for his impressions, which included Ronald Reagan, Charlton Heston, Frank Sinatra, Telly Savalas, Ed McMahon, Michael Caine, Jack Nicholson, Barbara Bush, Burt Reynolds, Phil Donahue, and former president Bill Clinton, which was perhaps his best-known impression. His other Saturday Night Live characters included Frankenstein and Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. He returned twice to host the show following his 1994 departure and was honored at the show's 25th anniversary special in 1999 by the members of the cast who had started their careers on the show the same year: Jan Hooks, Mike Myers, Nora Dunn, Dennis Miller, Kevin Nealon, Jon Lovitz, and Victoria Jackson.
Also in 1986, Hartman was chosen to play the role of Captain Carl, one of Pee-Wee Herman's close friends and famed sea captain in the first season of Pee-Wee's Playhouse.
From 1991 to 1998, Hartman also provided the voices for a number of characters on the popular animated series, The Simpsons, including dubious attorney Lionel Hutz, B-movie actor Troy McClure, and slippery monorail shyster Lyle Lanley; Hartman expressed interest in making a live action version of this character, but the film was never made. In the episode "Selma's Choice", he lent his voice to three different characters, one of which being the aforementioned Hutz.
In 1994, Hartman left SNL. His last scene on Saturday Night Live consisted of him consoling Chris Farley.
In 1995, he became one of the stars of the NBC sitcom NewsRadio, where he portrayed fatuous radio news anchor Bill McNeal. Many have credited the cancellation of the show with Hartman's passing, citing that the humor was thrown off balance despite the casting of Lovitz (who replaced Hartman).
Movies
Hartman's filmography includes often secondary or supporting roles in such feature films as Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Greed, Houseguest, Coneheads, Stuart Saves His Family (voice only), Sgt. Bilko, So I Married an Axe Murderer, CB4, Jingle All the Way and Small Soldiers, the last of which would become his final silver screen appearance and was thus dedicated to him.
His last role was in the English version of Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service, where he provided the voice of Jiji the cat. The movie was dedicated to his memory.
Video games
Hartman provided the voice of Captain Blasto in the PlayStation video game Blasto. Although there were plans for a sequel to the game, the sequel was immediately cancelled when Hartman died.
Murder
Hartman was murdered on May 28, 1998, in his Encino, California home, at the age of 49. As he slept, Hartman was shot twice in the head by his wife, Brynn, who, hours later, turned the gun on herself with a shot to the head. The reasons for the murder-suicide are unknown, although friends of the Hartmans speculated in the press that the combination of their marriage problems and Brynn's drug addictions probably contributed.
Hartman's murder caused considerable mourning in Hollywood. NewsRadio produced a special episode where the cast sincerely and tearfully mourned the death of Hartman's on-screen counterpart. Jon Lovitz joined the show in his place and stayed with it until its ultimate cancellation. Lovitz had been a Saturday Night Live cast member alongside Hartman for four seasons, and had also worked with Hartman when the both had cameos in the 1986 comedy Three Amigos.
Out of respect, The Simpsons retired Hartman's characters, rather than finding another voice actor. The episode "Bart the Mother" marked his final appearance on the show, and was dedicated to him.
At the time of his death, Hartman was preparing to voice several characters on Simpsons creator Matt Groening's other animated series Futurama, among them Zapp Brannigan. Groening wrote the character specifically for him, but Hartman had nonetheless insisted on auditioning. After he died, the lead character, Philip J. Fry, was named in his honor. Billy West (the voice of Fry, among many other Futurama characters) took his place. West's original audition formed the basis of Brannigan's final voice. By coincidence, however, his portrayal bears many similarities to Hartman's own vocal stylings.
Hartman was posthumously nominated for an Emmy Award for his portrayal of Bill McNeal in NewsRadio, but lost out to actor David Hyde Pierce. Upon learning Hartman did not win the award, NewsRadio co-star Dave Foley joked: "What's this guy gotta do to win an Emmy?"
RIP Phil Hartman 1948-1998
by p.redeckis June 6, 2006
Stefan Dennis (born 30 October 1958 in Tawonga, Victoria, Australia) is an Australian actor most famous for playing the role of Paul Robinson in the Australian soap opera Neighbours from 1985-1993. He returned to Neighbours at the end of 2004, and is now a regular character as of 2005, having signed a three year contract through to the end of 2008.
In 1989 he started a sideline music career, scoring a UK Top 20 single called Don't it Make You Feel Good, which reached #16 in May of this year. The B side of this was Solo Dancing. Later he released a second single, "This Love Affair", which failed to make the top 40.
After leaving Neighbours the first time, he appeared in such British television programmes as Dream Team, River City, Casualty and The Bill and in the film The Truth About Love.
After his 2004 return to Neighbours Dennis's character Paul has been involved in many of the show's major storylines, including the Bass Strait plane crash. The character had a leg amputated in a particularly strong stretch of episodes which enabled Dennis to show off the full depth and sensitivity of his acting skills. In the final episode of 2005 Paul was attacked by a grieving Harold Bishop (played by Ian Smith).
Prior to becoming an actor, he worked as a chef. He married his wife, Gail Easdale, in 2000 and they have two children together.
In 1989 he started a sideline music career, scoring a UK Top 20 single called Don't it Make You Feel Good, which reached #16 in May of this year. The B side of this was Solo Dancing. Later he released a second single, "This Love Affair", which failed to make the top 40.
After leaving Neighbours the first time, he appeared in such British television programmes as Dream Team, River City, Casualty and The Bill and in the film The Truth About Love.
After his 2004 return to Neighbours Dennis's character Paul has been involved in many of the show's major storylines, including the Bass Strait plane crash. The character had a leg amputated in a particularly strong stretch of episodes which enabled Dennis to show off the full depth and sensitivity of his acting skills. In the final episode of 2005 Paul was attacked by a grieving Harold Bishop (played by Ian Smith).
Prior to becoming an actor, he worked as a chef. He married his wife, Gail Easdale, in 2000 and they have two children together.
Stefan Dennis
Neighbours
Neighbours
by p.redeckis June 7, 2006
One of the most deadly and tragic opponents to emerge from the battlefields of the Clone Wars was Asajj Ventress, a disciple of the dark side and sworn enemy of the Jedi. A lifetime of enduring cruel hardships had purged any compassion from her cold heart, and a fierce survival instinct forged in the ceaseless dangers of her bloody homeworld kept her on the dark path.
Much of her past remains shrouded in mystery. Ventress hails from Rattatak, a barbaric world where violent bloodshed is a daily occurrence. The primitive planet is far from the Republic borders, and is ruled by brutal warlords who constantly battle for domination. A warlord named Osika Kirske murdered Asajj's parents when she was very young. Somehow, a young Jedi named Ky Narec came to be stranded on this forsaken world. Cut off from the Jedi Council, Narec discovered Asajj and took it upon himself to train the Force-strong orphan. The two quickly became heroes, vanquishing many warlords, ending wars, and uniting armies until Kirske conspired with the remaining warlords to retaliate. They succeeded in killing Narec before he could complete Asajj's training.
As a result, she had the skills of the Jedi combined with a raw, unfocused talent in the Force. She never controlled her instinctual fury, and when her master died, she developed a hatred for the Republic that had abandoned her mentor, and had ignored the atrocities of Rattatak.
Asajj's rage fueled her power, and she clawed her way up to a position of authority on the lawless world of Rattatak. She conquered and imprisoned most of the remaining warlords, including Osika Kirske, whom she would eventually kill. She could best any of the monstrous combatants in the gladiatorial games held regularly on the world. Shortly after the outbreak of the Clone Wars, Count Dooku came to Rattatak, looking for another world to add to the Separatist fold. What he found instead was far more promising.
Ventress' raw talent and fierce determination impressed Dooku. The charismatic leader of the Confederacy was able to recruit the young warrior by appealing to her disgust with the Jedi and the Republic. Dooku confirmed Ventress' bitter ideas that the Jedi had abandoned their ethics and convictions. Ventress proved her skills by challenging Dooku to a duel. Though Dooku won the sparring contest, he invited Ventress to accompany him back into the Confederacy as a personal protégé.
Though Ventress longed to identify herself as a Sith, she did not receive Sith training. While Dooku helped hone her talents, he taught her none of the knowledge unique to the Sith. Her skills were a combination of incomplete Jedi training coupled with her own techniques. Her raw talents and bottomless well of anger and pain bolstered her dark side abilities. Giving into her rage granted her further powers.
Ventress proved to be a cunning military mastermind, and Dooku made her a commander within the Separatist army. One of her first assignments was disrupting a meeting between Jedi Master Mace Windu and a group of dissident Jedi. Dooku had no compunctions about exploiting and lying to Asajj to meet his ends. He told her that Windu was responsible for the abandonment of her former Jedi mentor. Asajj did battle with Windu on the moon of Ruul, and though Asajj was forced to flee the fight, Windu came to realize that a new and dark menace to the Jedi was at large.
Asajj was in command of a Separatist plot to unleash a deadly chemical weapon on the Gungan colony moon of Ohma-D'un. This was an early test of a chemical warfare program against the clone troopers of the Republic. Though Asajj and Durge had to flee the Naboo moon, they had proven to be formidable opponents against the Jedi.
General Obi-Wan Kenobi followed Asajj to the chemical weapon development plants on Queyta. Asajj was tasked by Count Dooku to once again offer Kenobi a chance to join the Separatists, but the Jedi refused. Asajj again escaped to plague the Republic on other battlefronts.
Four months after the Battle of Geonosis, Asajj joined the fighting on Muunilinst, where Republic clone troopers attacked droid factories on the InterGalactic Banking Clan homeworld. Though the bounty hunter Durge handled the ground campaign, Asajj soared into battle aboard one of her fanblade starfighters. Her incredible piloting skills drew the attention of Anakin Skywalker, the Padawan who was leading the space forces. Despite orders not to pursue, Anakin gave chase, and Asajj lured the young Jedi-in-training into a trap.
Anakin followed Asajj through hyperspace to the ancient Sith temples of Yavin 4. Anakin continued his pursuit on foot, aided by clone troopers. Using the Force, Asajj whittled away the clone trooper guards, and then began a stunning lightsaber duel with Anakin. So skilled was she, Asajj even proved to be a challenge to the fabled Chosen One of Jedi legend. To defeat her, Anakin needed the edge granted by giving into anger. In a furious counter-attack, young Skywalker repulsed Ventress, who nevertheless survived.
After being captured on Jabiim, Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi and the ARC trooper known as Alpha were transported to Ventress' private fortress on Rattatak. There, she tortured the prisoners in hopes of breaking Obi-Wan's spirit and presenting the defeated Jedi as a trophy to Count Dooku. Kenobi foiled her plans, though, and escaped along with Alpha. Adding insult to injury, Kenobi stole Ky Narec's lightsaber, which Ventress kept as a memento of her past, and left Rattatak by absconding with one of her fanblade fighters.
Asajj has perfected a lightsaber combat form that uses paired blades to strike and parry. She carried twin weapons given to her by Count Dooku, and each bears a similar archaic curved handle design favored by the former Jedi Master. Ventress' lightsaber handles are especially modified so that they can connect into a joined, S-shaped handle, becoming a double-bladed lightsaber.
Much of her past remains shrouded in mystery. Ventress hails from Rattatak, a barbaric world where violent bloodshed is a daily occurrence. The primitive planet is far from the Republic borders, and is ruled by brutal warlords who constantly battle for domination. A warlord named Osika Kirske murdered Asajj's parents when she was very young. Somehow, a young Jedi named Ky Narec came to be stranded on this forsaken world. Cut off from the Jedi Council, Narec discovered Asajj and took it upon himself to train the Force-strong orphan. The two quickly became heroes, vanquishing many warlords, ending wars, and uniting armies until Kirske conspired with the remaining warlords to retaliate. They succeeded in killing Narec before he could complete Asajj's training.
As a result, she had the skills of the Jedi combined with a raw, unfocused talent in the Force. She never controlled her instinctual fury, and when her master died, she developed a hatred for the Republic that had abandoned her mentor, and had ignored the atrocities of Rattatak.
Asajj's rage fueled her power, and she clawed her way up to a position of authority on the lawless world of Rattatak. She conquered and imprisoned most of the remaining warlords, including Osika Kirske, whom she would eventually kill. She could best any of the monstrous combatants in the gladiatorial games held regularly on the world. Shortly after the outbreak of the Clone Wars, Count Dooku came to Rattatak, looking for another world to add to the Separatist fold. What he found instead was far more promising.
Ventress' raw talent and fierce determination impressed Dooku. The charismatic leader of the Confederacy was able to recruit the young warrior by appealing to her disgust with the Jedi and the Republic. Dooku confirmed Ventress' bitter ideas that the Jedi had abandoned their ethics and convictions. Ventress proved her skills by challenging Dooku to a duel. Though Dooku won the sparring contest, he invited Ventress to accompany him back into the Confederacy as a personal protégé.
Though Ventress longed to identify herself as a Sith, she did not receive Sith training. While Dooku helped hone her talents, he taught her none of the knowledge unique to the Sith. Her skills were a combination of incomplete Jedi training coupled with her own techniques. Her raw talents and bottomless well of anger and pain bolstered her dark side abilities. Giving into her rage granted her further powers.
Ventress proved to be a cunning military mastermind, and Dooku made her a commander within the Separatist army. One of her first assignments was disrupting a meeting between Jedi Master Mace Windu and a group of dissident Jedi. Dooku had no compunctions about exploiting and lying to Asajj to meet his ends. He told her that Windu was responsible for the abandonment of her former Jedi mentor. Asajj did battle with Windu on the moon of Ruul, and though Asajj was forced to flee the fight, Windu came to realize that a new and dark menace to the Jedi was at large.
Asajj was in command of a Separatist plot to unleash a deadly chemical weapon on the Gungan colony moon of Ohma-D'un. This was an early test of a chemical warfare program against the clone troopers of the Republic. Though Asajj and Durge had to flee the Naboo moon, they had proven to be formidable opponents against the Jedi.
General Obi-Wan Kenobi followed Asajj to the chemical weapon development plants on Queyta. Asajj was tasked by Count Dooku to once again offer Kenobi a chance to join the Separatists, but the Jedi refused. Asajj again escaped to plague the Republic on other battlefronts.
Four months after the Battle of Geonosis, Asajj joined the fighting on Muunilinst, where Republic clone troopers attacked droid factories on the InterGalactic Banking Clan homeworld. Though the bounty hunter Durge handled the ground campaign, Asajj soared into battle aboard one of her fanblade starfighters. Her incredible piloting skills drew the attention of Anakin Skywalker, the Padawan who was leading the space forces. Despite orders not to pursue, Anakin gave chase, and Asajj lured the young Jedi-in-training into a trap.
Anakin followed Asajj through hyperspace to the ancient Sith temples of Yavin 4. Anakin continued his pursuit on foot, aided by clone troopers. Using the Force, Asajj whittled away the clone trooper guards, and then began a stunning lightsaber duel with Anakin. So skilled was she, Asajj even proved to be a challenge to the fabled Chosen One of Jedi legend. To defeat her, Anakin needed the edge granted by giving into anger. In a furious counter-attack, young Skywalker repulsed Ventress, who nevertheless survived.
After being captured on Jabiim, Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi and the ARC trooper known as Alpha were transported to Ventress' private fortress on Rattatak. There, she tortured the prisoners in hopes of breaking Obi-Wan's spirit and presenting the defeated Jedi as a trophy to Count Dooku. Kenobi foiled her plans, though, and escaped along with Alpha. Adding insult to injury, Kenobi stole Ky Narec's lightsaber, which Ventress kept as a memento of her past, and left Rattatak by absconding with one of her fanblade fighters.
Asajj has perfected a lightsaber combat form that uses paired blades to strike and parry. She carried twin weapons given to her by Count Dooku, and each bears a similar archaic curved handle design favored by the former Jedi Master. Ventress' lightsaber handles are especially modified so that they can connect into a joined, S-shaped handle, becoming a double-bladed lightsaber.
Asajj Ventress, Star Wars
by p.redeckis June 7, 2006
Sabé is the most important of Queen Amidala's royal retinue of handmaidens. During crisis situations, Sabé and Amidala switch roles. Sabé becomes a decoy, disguised as the Queen, while Amidala adopts a simple gown of a handmaiden, and goes by her less formal name of Padmé Naberrie. When in this role, Sabé and Padmé secretly communicate with subtle signals as to not divulge their true identities. During the Trade Federation invasion of Naboo, Sabé posed as the Queen on several occasions.
by p.redeckis June 7, 2006
I Love Lucy is a television sitcom that aired in the 1950s. During that time, it was the most popular American sitcom. It starred comedienne Lucille Ball, her husband Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance and William Frawley. The series ran from October 15, 1951 to May 6, 1957 on CBS (180 episodes, including the "lost" Christmas episode). This show was ranked #2 on TV Guide's top 50 greatest shows of all time in 2002, behind Seinfeld and ahead of The Honeymooners. The program was filmed at Desilu, the production studio jointly owned by Ball and Arnaz.
The sitcom was based on a radio show starring Lucille Ball and Richard Denning called My Favorite Husband. Denning was enthusiastic to continue his role as Ball's husband, but Ball wanted her real-life husband, Cuban-born musician Desi Arnaz, to play her onscreen spouse. Studio heads were worried that American audiences would not find such a "mixed marriage" to be believable, and were concerned about Arnaz's heavy Cuban accent. But Ball was adamant, and they were eager to have her in the part. To help sway their decision, Ball and Arnaz put together a vaudeville act featuring his music and her comedy, which was well received in several cities. In the end, CBS agreed, but refused to let Desi Arnaz's role be part of the show's title (as in "Lucy and Ricky"). After lengthy negotiations, Arnaz relented and agreed to "I Love Lucy", reasoning that the "I" would be his part.
Arnaz persuaded Karl Freund, cinematographer of Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) and Tod Browning's Dracula (1931) as well as director of The Mummy (1932), to be the series' cinematographer, which many critics believe accounts for the show's lustrous black and white cinematography.
Lucille Ball was the last main cast member still living when she died on April 26, 1989. The only living cast member is Keith Thibodeaux (credited as "Richard Keith") who played Lucy and Ricky's young son "Little Ricky" in the last two seasons.
Contents hide
1 The show
2 Innovative techniques
3 Episodes
4 Themes and Highlights
5 Cast
6 Emmy Awards
6.1 I Love Lucy (The Show)
6.2 Lucille Ball
6.3 Desi Arnaz
6.4 Vivian Vance
6.5 William Frawley
7 DVD Releases
8 Trivia
9 References
10 External links
edit
The show
"Oh Ricky, you're wonderful!"Set in New York City, I Love Lucy is centered around Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball), a housewife, her husband Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz), who is a singer and bandleader, and their friends and landlords Fred and Ethel Mertz (William Frawley and Vivian Vance). Most episodes take place in the Ricardos' modest brownstone apartment at 623 East 68th Street — which in reality would be in the middle of the East River — or at the downtown "Tropicana" nightclub where Ricky is employed, and sometimes elsewhere in the city. Later episodes took the Ricardos and the Mertzes to Hollywood for Ricky to shoot a movie, and then they all accompanied Ricky while he and his band toured Europe. Eventually the Ricardos and the Mertzes moved to a house in the rural town of Westport, Connecticut.
Lucy Ricardo is a loving if somewhat naïve housewife with an ambitious character who has a knack for getting herself into trouble. In particular, she is obsessed with joining her husband in show business. Fred and Ethel are themselves former vaudevillians, which strengthens Lucy's resolve to prove herself as a performer. Unfortunately, Lucy Ricardo cannot carry a tune or play anything other than an off-key rendition of "Glow Worm" (or "Sweet Sue") on the saxophone and evidently has no other artistic or managerial talent. Yet Lucy is determined to show everyone around her that she is much more than an ordinary housewife. A typical I Love Lucy episode involves one of Lucy's ambitious but hare-brained schemes, whether it be to sneak into Ricky's nightclub act, find a way to associate with celebrities, show up her fellow women's club members, or simply try to better her life. Usually she ends up in some comedic mess, often dragging in Ethel as her reluctant companion. Legend says that Ricky often cried: "Lucy! You got some 'splainin' to do!" However, like other supposed "famous quotes" (Cary Grant saying "Judy, Judy, Judy", or "Peetah, give me the lettah" by Bette Davis), this line was never actually spoken by Desi Arnaz. Perhaps the closest he came to this line was his admonition to Lucy, "That's no 'scuse!" to which she mockingly answered, "That's plenty 'scuse!"
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Innovative techniques
"It's so tasty, too!"At the time, most television shows were broadcast live from New York City, and a low-quality 35mm or 16mm kinescope print was made of the show to broadcast it in other time zones. But Ball was pregnant at the time, and she and Arnaz therefore insisted on filming the show in Hollywood. The duo, along with co-creator Jess Oppenheimer, then decided to shoot the show on 35 mm film in front of a live studio audience, with three cameras, a technique standard among present-day sitcoms. The result was a much sharper image than other shows of the time, and the audience reactions were far more authentic than the "canned laughter" used on most filmed sitcoms of the time. The technique was not completely new — another CBS comedy series, Amos 'n' Andy, which debuted four months earlier, was already being filmed at Hal Roach Studios with three 35mm cameras to save time and money. But I Love Lucy was the first show to use this technique with a studio audience.
Scenes were often performed like a play, from start to finish, without interruption. As retakes were rare, dialogue mistakes were often played off as intentional as the actors continued. For example, in her last run-through of the famous Vitameatavegamin commercial, Lucy skips to the end of the speech (unscripted), realizes her mistake, and returns to the midpoint without missing her comic timing. This technique allowed the show to remain fresh for years and appear as a "live" performance.
On January 19, 1953 68% of all United States television sets were tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth. The next month on February 18 Ball and Arnaz signed an $8,000,000 contract to continue I Love Lucy through 1955. After the end of the weekly series, the actors reunited for monthly one-hour specials under the title The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.
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Episodes
Main article: List of I Love Lucy episodes
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Themes and Highlights
In the course of the show, numerous comic ideas were introduced, and often reappeared in subsequent episodes. Several bits remain famous and beloved, often listed amongst television's best. The following list reviews some of the high points.
The clown
Considered by professional clowns to be one of their own, Lucille Ball's 'clown character' was "Lucy Ricardo." (nee "Lucille McGillicuddy" — an instantly recognizable clown moniker). Lucy Ricardo was a friendly, ambitious and somewhat naïve housewife, constantly getting into trouble of one kind or another.
The setup of the show provided ample opportunities for Ball to display her skills at clowning and physical comedy. She is regarded as one of the best in the history of film and television at physical 'schtick'.
In the course of the television series, Lucy shared the screen with numerous famous clowns. Prominent among these were Red Skelton and Harpo Marx.
Lucy tries to get into the act — a recurring and almost omnipresent theme on the show, was that "talentless" plain old Lucy the Housewife dearly desired a chance to perform, as anything: a dancer, showgirl, clown, singing cowboy — or in any role. The real joke here is that Lucille Ball, aside from being regarded as beautiful, was also quite talented in a variety of performance arts, as well as being a ground-breaking television producer.
Perhaps the best example of this gag is when Lucy shows up unannounced at Ricky's club, toting a clown-modified cello and pretending to be a musician, asking to speak with "Risky Riskerdoo" (Ricky Ricardo) this classic includes Lucy winding the cello's tuning peg as if it were a watch (to the accompaniment of ratcheting sounds) and shooting the cello's bow at Ricky's backside.
Lucy in the Candy Factory — ("Speeeeeeed it up a little!!") Lucy and Ethel attempt to get jobs — for which they are demonstrably unprepared — the classic candy-gobbling scene in this episode is an American cultural icon. This bit was a variation on an old vaudeville routine. Jackie Gleason also did a variation, involving decorating and boxing cakes as they came off an assembly line.
The Mirror Gag — now a classic improvisational acting exercise (with Harpo Marx), in which Lucy, dressed as Harpo Marx encounters the real Harpo while hiding in the kitchen doorway. Perplexed at what he sees he confronts his reflection and Lucy is forced to mimick his every move. This bit was a tribute to Harpo and Groucho's famous mirror scene in the Marx Brothers comedy classic, Duck Soup.
The Stranger with a Kind Face (aka Slowly I Turned) in which a veteran clown introduces Lucy Ricardo to some basics of the clown art, and is schooled in this classic (and at that time quite familiar) vaudevillian routine, complete with 'seltzer bottles' (a familiar clown prop) and slapstick. The Three Stooges are among many others who performed variations on this classic.
Vita-meata-vege-min — One of the most memorable episodes was titled "Lucy Does a Commercial", filmed during the first season (episode 30 of 35) on March 28, 1952, and first aired on May 5 of that year. In this episode Lucy manages to get a role as the "Vitameatavegamin girl" and is tasked with trying to sell the public a tonic that has healthy amounts of vitamins, meat, vegetables, minerals — and the less than healthy dose of 23% alcohol. "And it's so tasty too - grimacing - just like candy!" During rehearsal, Lucy becomes progressively more inebriated, with the inevitable hilarious result, made only the more funny by the alliterative, tongue twisting product name and pitch. "Do you pop out at parties? Are you unpoopular? Well, the answer to all your troubles is in this bittle lottle!"
In November of 2001, fans voted this episode as their all-time favorite during a 50th anniversary I Love Lucy television special.
Lucy Tries to Meet the Famous Star — another recurring theme, many popular stars were eager to appear on the show, and hilarity ensued in countless episodes as a result of the character, Lucy's obsession with fame and the famous.
The Cousin Ernie story arc. Lucy receives a letter informing her that her "Best Friend's Roommate's Cousin's Middle Boy" — of whom she has never heard — is coming to visit from "Bent Fork, Tennessee". 'Cousin Ernie' (immaculately played by "Tennessee" Ernie Ford) is a stereotypical Country Boy in the Big City, in awe of the sophistication (as he perceives it) of his new hosts. Cousin Ernie and the citizens of Bent Fork and its environs are encountered several times during the course of the show's life.
The Singing Jailbreak — This episode is part of the Hollywood story arc. Ricky, Lucy, Fred, and Ethel participate in a square dance called by Cousin Ernie to escape a Bent Fork, Tennessee jail in the course of which the sheriff and his two rotund daughters are tied up with a handy piece of rope. Then Ricky, Lucy, Fred and Ethel make their escape to continue their cross country venture.
Lucy does the tango - The Ricardos' and the Mertzes' chicken business is not going very well, so Lucy and Ethel come up with a plot to fool the boys into thinking the hens are laying by smuggling eggs in the henhouse, hidden underneath their clothes. However, Ricky insists that he and Lucy rehearse their tango number for a local benefit. Unbeknownst to Ricky, Lucy's blouse is filled with chicken eggs. When Lucy slams into Ricky in the final dance step, the eggs break, saturating Lucy's shirt with broken eggs. The skit resulted in the longest audience laughter in the show's history.
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Cast
Lucille Ball .... Lucille 'Lucy' Esmeralda MacGillicuddy Ricardo
Desi Arnaz .... Enrique 'Ricky' Alberto Ricardo y de Acha III
Vivian Vance .... Ethel Mae Roberta Louise Potter Mertz
William Frawley .... Frederick 'Fred' Hobart Edie Mertz I
Kathryn Card .... Mrs. MacGillicuddy (1955-1956)
Mary Jane Croft .... Betty Ramsey (1957)
Jerry Hausner .... Jerry, Ricky's agent (1951-1954)
Bob Jellison .... Bobby, the Hollywood bellboy (1954-1955)
Keith Thibodeaux .... Ricky Ricardo, Jr. (1956-1957) (as Little Ricky)
Joseph A. & Michael Mayer .... Ricky Ricardo, Jr. (baby) (1953-1954)
Frank Nelson .... Ralph Ramsey (1957)
Elizabeth Patterson .... Mrs. Mathilda Trumbull (1953-1956)
Richard & Ronald Lee Simmons .... Ricky Ricardo, Jr. (baby) (1954-1955)
Doris Singleton .... Caroline Appleby (1953-1957)
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Emmy Awards
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I Love Lucy (The Show)
1952: Nominated - Best Comedy Show
1953: Won - Best Situation Comedy
1954: Won - Best Situation Comedy
1955: Nominated - Best Written Comedy Material: Madelyn Davis, Jess Oppenheimer, Robert G. Carroll
1955: Nominated - Best Situation Comedy
1956: Nominated - Best Comedy Writing: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Davis, Jess Oppenheimer, Bob Schiller, Bob Weiskopf for episode: "L.A. At Last"
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Lucille Ball
1952: Nominated - Best Comedian or Comedienne
1953: Nominated - Most Outstanding Personality
1953: Won - Best Comedienne
1954: Nominated - Best Female Star of Regular Series
1955: Nominated - Best Actress Starring in a Regular Series
1956: Nominated - Best Comedienne
1956: Won - Best Actress - Continuing Performance
1957: Nominated - Best Continuing Performance by a Comedienne in a Series
1958: Nominated - Best Continuing Performance (Female) in a Series by a Comedienne, Singer, Hostess, Dancer, M.C., Announcer, Narrator, Panelist, or any Person who Essentially Plays Herself
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Desi Arnaz
Never nominated.
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Vivian Vance
1954: Won - Best Series Supporting Actress
1955: Nominated - Best Supporting Actress in a Regular Series
1957: Nominated - Best Supporting Performance by an Actress
1958: Nominated - Best Continuing Supporting Performance by an Actress in a Dramatic or Comedy Series
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William Frawley
1954: Nominated - Best Series Supporting Actor
1955: Nominated - Best Supporting Actor in a Regular Series
1956: Nominated - Best Actor in a Supporting Role
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DVD Releases
"I Love Lucy- Season 1" (9 Separate disks, sold separately)
"I Love Lucy- 50th Anniversary Special"
"I Love Lucy- The Complete First Season" (7 disks, sold together)
"I Love Lucy- The Complete Second Season"
"I Love Lucy- The Complete Third Season"
"I Love Lucy- The Complete Fourth Season"
"I Love Lucy- The Complete Fifth Season"
"I Love Lucy- Seasons 1-5"
"I Love Lucy- The Complete Sixth Season"
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Trivia
Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet were originally approached for the roles of Fred and Ethel, but neither could accept due to previous commitments. Gordon did appear as a guest star in a few episodes, playing Ricky's boss, Mr. Littlefield. Gordon was a veteran from the classic radio days in which he perfected the role of the exasperated character, such as in Fibber McGee and Molly. He would go on to costar with Ball in most of her post-I Love Lucy series. Benaderet once guest starred playing the Ricardo's neighbor, the elderly Miss Lewis.
At various times, Ethel's middle name was Mae, Roberta, and Louise.
The Mertz's kitchen was never shown except in the episode, "Never Do Business With Friends".
Lucille Ball liked naming supporting characters after real-life people. Carolyn Appleby was one of her teachers, and Marion Strong was a friend in Jamestown, New York.
Kathryn Card, who played Lucy's scatterbrained mother, first appeared in the series as a slovenly housewife who mistakenly believes Ricky Ricardo has invited her to join him on a date at the Tropicana.
Barbara Pepper, later featured as Doris Ziffel on the series Green Acres, frequently had one or two lines in a crowd scene. Her friendship with Ball dated back to the film Roman Scandals, in which both appeared as Goldwyn Girls.
Many facts about Ball and Arnaz made it into the series. Like Ball, Lucy Ricardo attended high school in Celoron, New York, and the Ricardos were married at the Byram River Beagle Club in Greenwich, Connecticut, just as the Arnazes had been.
Reportedly, the longest laugh in any sitcom ever — 65 seconds — was heard in the episode Lucy Does the Tango, during which Lucy - her jacket filled with raw eggs — slams into Ricky and breaks them while rehearsing a tango routine for the PTA show.
The show was one of the first programmes made in the USA seen on British television which became more open to commerce with the launch of ITV in September 1955, a commercial network that aired this series.
Ball and Arnaz capitalized on the series' popularity by starring in Vincente Minnelli's 1953 film The Long, Long Trailer as Tacy and Nicky Collini, two characters very similar to Lucy and Ricky, named Tacy and Nicky.
I Love Lucy is commonly spoofed, including on an episode of The Fairly Oddparents, in which Cosmo and Wanda go into a TV and star in a fictional show called I Love Wanda.
Ethel Mertz née Potter is originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Ethel Mertz and Betty Ramsey, the neighbor from the later seasons, were childhood friends.
I Love Lucy is the first of only three shows to end its run as the #1 TV show in America. The other two are The Andy Griffith Show in 1968 and Seinfeld in 1998.
It is now well-known that Vance and Frawley did not get along, a fact which seemingly added some humorous edge to their on-screen interaction. When the series ended, Vance and Frawley were said to have been offered a chance to take their Fred and Ethel characters to their own spin-off series. Frawley was willing to do so, but Vance refused to ever work with Frawley again.
Ball and Arnaz's eventual off-screen personal problems had a much more serious effect, contributing to the demise of the show.
The last episodes of the series had to be made, even though Ball and Arnaz were divorcing/divorced. A contract had been signed before the two began to have major problems, and it wasn't lifted. This is why in the last episodes of the series, one can see Ball looking as if she had just been crying, even in supposed-to-be funny skits.
The familiar opening featuring the credits superimposed over a "heart" image, known to most of the show's younger fans, was created specifically when I Love Lucy went into syndication. When originally broadcast on CBS, the episodes featured an opening with animated drawings of Ball and Arnaz, making reference to whomever the particular episode's sponsor was (usually Phillip Morris). Since the original sponsor references were no longer applicable when the shows went into syndication, the new opening was created. These openings (with the sponsor names edited out) are now used on TV Land showings.
"Weird Al" Yankovic parodied the TV show, as well as Toni Basil's song "Mickey", in the song "Ricky" on his 1983 debut album, working in many of the show's classic schticks and closing with a segment of the I Love Lucy theme. Yankovic also produced an album of the show's greatest musical moments entitled Babalu Music.
On Babylon 5, Ambassador Sinclair refers to himself and Captain Sheridan as "Lucy and Ethel." Sheridan responds, "Lucy and Ethel?"
In the movie Rat Race one of the characters pretends to be a coach driver and drives a group of women, dressed up as Lucy to the "Third annual I Love Lucy Convention"
It's been rumored that Arnaz had a photographic memory, able to remember the scripts perfectly after reading them just one time.
The series is as of April 2006 the longest running program to continue airing in the Los Angeles area almost 50 years after it ended. Ironically, the series is currently aired on KTTV, which had given up the CBS affiliation several months before I Love Lucy premiered.
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References
Joe Garner, Stay Tuned: Television's Unforgettable Moments (Andrews McMeel Publishing; 2002) ISBN 0-7407-2693-5
Bart Andrews, The 'I Love Lucy' Book (Doubleday & Company, Inc.; 1976)
Coyne Steven Sanders & Tom Gilbert, Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz (William Morrow & Company, Inc.; 1993)
The sitcom was based on a radio show starring Lucille Ball and Richard Denning called My Favorite Husband. Denning was enthusiastic to continue his role as Ball's husband, but Ball wanted her real-life husband, Cuban-born musician Desi Arnaz, to play her onscreen spouse. Studio heads were worried that American audiences would not find such a "mixed marriage" to be believable, and were concerned about Arnaz's heavy Cuban accent. But Ball was adamant, and they were eager to have her in the part. To help sway their decision, Ball and Arnaz put together a vaudeville act featuring his music and her comedy, which was well received in several cities. In the end, CBS agreed, but refused to let Desi Arnaz's role be part of the show's title (as in "Lucy and Ricky"). After lengthy negotiations, Arnaz relented and agreed to "I Love Lucy", reasoning that the "I" would be his part.
Arnaz persuaded Karl Freund, cinematographer of Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) and Tod Browning's Dracula (1931) as well as director of The Mummy (1932), to be the series' cinematographer, which many critics believe accounts for the show's lustrous black and white cinematography.
Lucille Ball was the last main cast member still living when she died on April 26, 1989. The only living cast member is Keith Thibodeaux (credited as "Richard Keith") who played Lucy and Ricky's young son "Little Ricky" in the last two seasons.
Contents hide
1 The show
2 Innovative techniques
3 Episodes
4 Themes and Highlights
5 Cast
6 Emmy Awards
6.1 I Love Lucy (The Show)
6.2 Lucille Ball
6.3 Desi Arnaz
6.4 Vivian Vance
6.5 William Frawley
7 DVD Releases
8 Trivia
9 References
10 External links
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The show
"Oh Ricky, you're wonderful!"Set in New York City, I Love Lucy is centered around Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball), a housewife, her husband Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz), who is a singer and bandleader, and their friends and landlords Fred and Ethel Mertz (William Frawley and Vivian Vance). Most episodes take place in the Ricardos' modest brownstone apartment at 623 East 68th Street — which in reality would be in the middle of the East River — or at the downtown "Tropicana" nightclub where Ricky is employed, and sometimes elsewhere in the city. Later episodes took the Ricardos and the Mertzes to Hollywood for Ricky to shoot a movie, and then they all accompanied Ricky while he and his band toured Europe. Eventually the Ricardos and the Mertzes moved to a house in the rural town of Westport, Connecticut.
Lucy Ricardo is a loving if somewhat naïve housewife with an ambitious character who has a knack for getting herself into trouble. In particular, she is obsessed with joining her husband in show business. Fred and Ethel are themselves former vaudevillians, which strengthens Lucy's resolve to prove herself as a performer. Unfortunately, Lucy Ricardo cannot carry a tune or play anything other than an off-key rendition of "Glow Worm" (or "Sweet Sue") on the saxophone and evidently has no other artistic or managerial talent. Yet Lucy is determined to show everyone around her that she is much more than an ordinary housewife. A typical I Love Lucy episode involves one of Lucy's ambitious but hare-brained schemes, whether it be to sneak into Ricky's nightclub act, find a way to associate with celebrities, show up her fellow women's club members, or simply try to better her life. Usually she ends up in some comedic mess, often dragging in Ethel as her reluctant companion. Legend says that Ricky often cried: "Lucy! You got some 'splainin' to do!" However, like other supposed "famous quotes" (Cary Grant saying "Judy, Judy, Judy", or "Peetah, give me the lettah" by Bette Davis), this line was never actually spoken by Desi Arnaz. Perhaps the closest he came to this line was his admonition to Lucy, "That's no 'scuse!" to which she mockingly answered, "That's plenty 'scuse!"
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Innovative techniques
"It's so tasty, too!"At the time, most television shows were broadcast live from New York City, and a low-quality 35mm or 16mm kinescope print was made of the show to broadcast it in other time zones. But Ball was pregnant at the time, and she and Arnaz therefore insisted on filming the show in Hollywood. The duo, along with co-creator Jess Oppenheimer, then decided to shoot the show on 35 mm film in front of a live studio audience, with three cameras, a technique standard among present-day sitcoms. The result was a much sharper image than other shows of the time, and the audience reactions were far more authentic than the "canned laughter" used on most filmed sitcoms of the time. The technique was not completely new — another CBS comedy series, Amos 'n' Andy, which debuted four months earlier, was already being filmed at Hal Roach Studios with three 35mm cameras to save time and money. But I Love Lucy was the first show to use this technique with a studio audience.
Scenes were often performed like a play, from start to finish, without interruption. As retakes were rare, dialogue mistakes were often played off as intentional as the actors continued. For example, in her last run-through of the famous Vitameatavegamin commercial, Lucy skips to the end of the speech (unscripted), realizes her mistake, and returns to the midpoint without missing her comic timing. This technique allowed the show to remain fresh for years and appear as a "live" performance.
On January 19, 1953 68% of all United States television sets were tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth. The next month on February 18 Ball and Arnaz signed an $8,000,000 contract to continue I Love Lucy through 1955. After the end of the weekly series, the actors reunited for monthly one-hour specials under the title The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.
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Episodes
Main article: List of I Love Lucy episodes
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Themes and Highlights
In the course of the show, numerous comic ideas were introduced, and often reappeared in subsequent episodes. Several bits remain famous and beloved, often listed amongst television's best. The following list reviews some of the high points.
The clown
Considered by professional clowns to be one of their own, Lucille Ball's 'clown character' was "Lucy Ricardo." (nee "Lucille McGillicuddy" — an instantly recognizable clown moniker). Lucy Ricardo was a friendly, ambitious and somewhat naïve housewife, constantly getting into trouble of one kind or another.
The setup of the show provided ample opportunities for Ball to display her skills at clowning and physical comedy. She is regarded as one of the best in the history of film and television at physical 'schtick'.
In the course of the television series, Lucy shared the screen with numerous famous clowns. Prominent among these were Red Skelton and Harpo Marx.
Lucy tries to get into the act — a recurring and almost omnipresent theme on the show, was that "talentless" plain old Lucy the Housewife dearly desired a chance to perform, as anything: a dancer, showgirl, clown, singing cowboy — or in any role. The real joke here is that Lucille Ball, aside from being regarded as beautiful, was also quite talented in a variety of performance arts, as well as being a ground-breaking television producer.
Perhaps the best example of this gag is when Lucy shows up unannounced at Ricky's club, toting a clown-modified cello and pretending to be a musician, asking to speak with "Risky Riskerdoo" (Ricky Ricardo) this classic includes Lucy winding the cello's tuning peg as if it were a watch (to the accompaniment of ratcheting sounds) and shooting the cello's bow at Ricky's backside.
Lucy in the Candy Factory — ("Speeeeeeed it up a little!!") Lucy and Ethel attempt to get jobs — for which they are demonstrably unprepared — the classic candy-gobbling scene in this episode is an American cultural icon. This bit was a variation on an old vaudeville routine. Jackie Gleason also did a variation, involving decorating and boxing cakes as they came off an assembly line.
The Mirror Gag — now a classic improvisational acting exercise (with Harpo Marx), in which Lucy, dressed as Harpo Marx encounters the real Harpo while hiding in the kitchen doorway. Perplexed at what he sees he confronts his reflection and Lucy is forced to mimick his every move. This bit was a tribute to Harpo and Groucho's famous mirror scene in the Marx Brothers comedy classic, Duck Soup.
The Stranger with a Kind Face (aka Slowly I Turned) in which a veteran clown introduces Lucy Ricardo to some basics of the clown art, and is schooled in this classic (and at that time quite familiar) vaudevillian routine, complete with 'seltzer bottles' (a familiar clown prop) and slapstick. The Three Stooges are among many others who performed variations on this classic.
Vita-meata-vege-min — One of the most memorable episodes was titled "Lucy Does a Commercial", filmed during the first season (episode 30 of 35) on March 28, 1952, and first aired on May 5 of that year. In this episode Lucy manages to get a role as the "Vitameatavegamin girl" and is tasked with trying to sell the public a tonic that has healthy amounts of vitamins, meat, vegetables, minerals — and the less than healthy dose of 23% alcohol. "And it's so tasty too - grimacing - just like candy!" During rehearsal, Lucy becomes progressively more inebriated, with the inevitable hilarious result, made only the more funny by the alliterative, tongue twisting product name and pitch. "Do you pop out at parties? Are you unpoopular? Well, the answer to all your troubles is in this bittle lottle!"
In November of 2001, fans voted this episode as their all-time favorite during a 50th anniversary I Love Lucy television special.
Lucy Tries to Meet the Famous Star — another recurring theme, many popular stars were eager to appear on the show, and hilarity ensued in countless episodes as a result of the character, Lucy's obsession with fame and the famous.
The Cousin Ernie story arc. Lucy receives a letter informing her that her "Best Friend's Roommate's Cousin's Middle Boy" — of whom she has never heard — is coming to visit from "Bent Fork, Tennessee". 'Cousin Ernie' (immaculately played by "Tennessee" Ernie Ford) is a stereotypical Country Boy in the Big City, in awe of the sophistication (as he perceives it) of his new hosts. Cousin Ernie and the citizens of Bent Fork and its environs are encountered several times during the course of the show's life.
The Singing Jailbreak — This episode is part of the Hollywood story arc. Ricky, Lucy, Fred, and Ethel participate in a square dance called by Cousin Ernie to escape a Bent Fork, Tennessee jail in the course of which the sheriff and his two rotund daughters are tied up with a handy piece of rope. Then Ricky, Lucy, Fred and Ethel make their escape to continue their cross country venture.
Lucy does the tango - The Ricardos' and the Mertzes' chicken business is not going very well, so Lucy and Ethel come up with a plot to fool the boys into thinking the hens are laying by smuggling eggs in the henhouse, hidden underneath their clothes. However, Ricky insists that he and Lucy rehearse their tango number for a local benefit. Unbeknownst to Ricky, Lucy's blouse is filled with chicken eggs. When Lucy slams into Ricky in the final dance step, the eggs break, saturating Lucy's shirt with broken eggs. The skit resulted in the longest audience laughter in the show's history.
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Cast
Lucille Ball .... Lucille 'Lucy' Esmeralda MacGillicuddy Ricardo
Desi Arnaz .... Enrique 'Ricky' Alberto Ricardo y de Acha III
Vivian Vance .... Ethel Mae Roberta Louise Potter Mertz
William Frawley .... Frederick 'Fred' Hobart Edie Mertz I
Kathryn Card .... Mrs. MacGillicuddy (1955-1956)
Mary Jane Croft .... Betty Ramsey (1957)
Jerry Hausner .... Jerry, Ricky's agent (1951-1954)
Bob Jellison .... Bobby, the Hollywood bellboy (1954-1955)
Keith Thibodeaux .... Ricky Ricardo, Jr. (1956-1957) (as Little Ricky)
Joseph A. & Michael Mayer .... Ricky Ricardo, Jr. (baby) (1953-1954)
Frank Nelson .... Ralph Ramsey (1957)
Elizabeth Patterson .... Mrs. Mathilda Trumbull (1953-1956)
Richard & Ronald Lee Simmons .... Ricky Ricardo, Jr. (baby) (1954-1955)
Doris Singleton .... Caroline Appleby (1953-1957)
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Emmy Awards
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I Love Lucy (The Show)
1952: Nominated - Best Comedy Show
1953: Won - Best Situation Comedy
1954: Won - Best Situation Comedy
1955: Nominated - Best Written Comedy Material: Madelyn Davis, Jess Oppenheimer, Robert G. Carroll
1955: Nominated - Best Situation Comedy
1956: Nominated - Best Comedy Writing: Bob Carroll Jr., Madelyn Davis, Jess Oppenheimer, Bob Schiller, Bob Weiskopf for episode: "L.A. At Last"
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Lucille Ball
1952: Nominated - Best Comedian or Comedienne
1953: Nominated - Most Outstanding Personality
1953: Won - Best Comedienne
1954: Nominated - Best Female Star of Regular Series
1955: Nominated - Best Actress Starring in a Regular Series
1956: Nominated - Best Comedienne
1956: Won - Best Actress - Continuing Performance
1957: Nominated - Best Continuing Performance by a Comedienne in a Series
1958: Nominated - Best Continuing Performance (Female) in a Series by a Comedienne, Singer, Hostess, Dancer, M.C., Announcer, Narrator, Panelist, or any Person who Essentially Plays Herself
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Desi Arnaz
Never nominated.
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Vivian Vance
1954: Won - Best Series Supporting Actress
1955: Nominated - Best Supporting Actress in a Regular Series
1957: Nominated - Best Supporting Performance by an Actress
1958: Nominated - Best Continuing Supporting Performance by an Actress in a Dramatic or Comedy Series
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William Frawley
1954: Nominated - Best Series Supporting Actor
1955: Nominated - Best Supporting Actor in a Regular Series
1956: Nominated - Best Actor in a Supporting Role
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DVD Releases
"I Love Lucy- Season 1" (9 Separate disks, sold separately)
"I Love Lucy- 50th Anniversary Special"
"I Love Lucy- The Complete First Season" (7 disks, sold together)
"I Love Lucy- The Complete Second Season"
"I Love Lucy- The Complete Third Season"
"I Love Lucy- The Complete Fourth Season"
"I Love Lucy- The Complete Fifth Season"
"I Love Lucy- Seasons 1-5"
"I Love Lucy- The Complete Sixth Season"
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Trivia
Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet were originally approached for the roles of Fred and Ethel, but neither could accept due to previous commitments. Gordon did appear as a guest star in a few episodes, playing Ricky's boss, Mr. Littlefield. Gordon was a veteran from the classic radio days in which he perfected the role of the exasperated character, such as in Fibber McGee and Molly. He would go on to costar with Ball in most of her post-I Love Lucy series. Benaderet once guest starred playing the Ricardo's neighbor, the elderly Miss Lewis.
At various times, Ethel's middle name was Mae, Roberta, and Louise.
The Mertz's kitchen was never shown except in the episode, "Never Do Business With Friends".
Lucille Ball liked naming supporting characters after real-life people. Carolyn Appleby was one of her teachers, and Marion Strong was a friend in Jamestown, New York.
Kathryn Card, who played Lucy's scatterbrained mother, first appeared in the series as a slovenly housewife who mistakenly believes Ricky Ricardo has invited her to join him on a date at the Tropicana.
Barbara Pepper, later featured as Doris Ziffel on the series Green Acres, frequently had one or two lines in a crowd scene. Her friendship with Ball dated back to the film Roman Scandals, in which both appeared as Goldwyn Girls.
Many facts about Ball and Arnaz made it into the series. Like Ball, Lucy Ricardo attended high school in Celoron, New York, and the Ricardos were married at the Byram River Beagle Club in Greenwich, Connecticut, just as the Arnazes had been.
Reportedly, the longest laugh in any sitcom ever — 65 seconds — was heard in the episode Lucy Does the Tango, during which Lucy - her jacket filled with raw eggs — slams into Ricky and breaks them while rehearsing a tango routine for the PTA show.
The show was one of the first programmes made in the USA seen on British television which became more open to commerce with the launch of ITV in September 1955, a commercial network that aired this series.
Ball and Arnaz capitalized on the series' popularity by starring in Vincente Minnelli's 1953 film The Long, Long Trailer as Tacy and Nicky Collini, two characters very similar to Lucy and Ricky, named Tacy and Nicky.
I Love Lucy is commonly spoofed, including on an episode of The Fairly Oddparents, in which Cosmo and Wanda go into a TV and star in a fictional show called I Love Wanda.
Ethel Mertz née Potter is originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Ethel Mertz and Betty Ramsey, the neighbor from the later seasons, were childhood friends.
I Love Lucy is the first of only three shows to end its run as the #1 TV show in America. The other two are The Andy Griffith Show in 1968 and Seinfeld in 1998.
It is now well-known that Vance and Frawley did not get along, a fact which seemingly added some humorous edge to their on-screen interaction. When the series ended, Vance and Frawley were said to have been offered a chance to take their Fred and Ethel characters to their own spin-off series. Frawley was willing to do so, but Vance refused to ever work with Frawley again.
Ball and Arnaz's eventual off-screen personal problems had a much more serious effect, contributing to the demise of the show.
The last episodes of the series had to be made, even though Ball and Arnaz were divorcing/divorced. A contract had been signed before the two began to have major problems, and it wasn't lifted. This is why in the last episodes of the series, one can see Ball looking as if she had just been crying, even in supposed-to-be funny skits.
The familiar opening featuring the credits superimposed over a "heart" image, known to most of the show's younger fans, was created specifically when I Love Lucy went into syndication. When originally broadcast on CBS, the episodes featured an opening with animated drawings of Ball and Arnaz, making reference to whomever the particular episode's sponsor was (usually Phillip Morris). Since the original sponsor references were no longer applicable when the shows went into syndication, the new opening was created. These openings (with the sponsor names edited out) are now used on TV Land showings.
"Weird Al" Yankovic parodied the TV show, as well as Toni Basil's song "Mickey", in the song "Ricky" on his 1983 debut album, working in many of the show's classic schticks and closing with a segment of the I Love Lucy theme. Yankovic also produced an album of the show's greatest musical moments entitled Babalu Music.
On Babylon 5, Ambassador Sinclair refers to himself and Captain Sheridan as "Lucy and Ethel." Sheridan responds, "Lucy and Ethel?"
In the movie Rat Race one of the characters pretends to be a coach driver and drives a group of women, dressed up as Lucy to the "Third annual I Love Lucy Convention"
It's been rumored that Arnaz had a photographic memory, able to remember the scripts perfectly after reading them just one time.
The series is as of April 2006 the longest running program to continue airing in the Los Angeles area almost 50 years after it ended. Ironically, the series is currently aired on KTTV, which had given up the CBS affiliation several months before I Love Lucy premiered.
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References
Joe Garner, Stay Tuned: Television's Unforgettable Moments (Andrews McMeel Publishing; 2002) ISBN 0-7407-2693-5
Bart Andrews, The 'I Love Lucy' Book (Doubleday & Company, Inc.; 1976)
Coyne Steven Sanders & Tom Gilbert, Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz (William Morrow & Company, Inc.; 1993)
by p.redeckis June 10, 2006