text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Pocket Tubmans

 This page is an archive of the proposed deletion of the article below. Further comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or on a Votes for Undeletion nomination). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was delete. Woohookitty 07:40, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

Pocket_Tubmans
Person trolling the wikipedia keeps adding this and similar nonsense. A Google search shows no results for "pocket tubmans". The term is the troll's own creation. 2005 03:30, August 30, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete as unverifiable. Btw, don't remove the content of the page when voting for deletion no matter how much its nonsense - that way, others can judge too. Grayum 10:08, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Speedy Delete. - This is nonsense.  Syrae Faileas 21:16, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete as unreferenced, and remove the entry in Texas hold 'em hands unless sources can be provided--Outlander 21:42, August 30, 2005 (UTC)
 * Speedy Keep - I Yahooed it and it showed up twice ... http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%22pocket+tubmans&fr=FP-tab-web-t-290&toggle=1&cop=&ei=UTF-8 . I've heard the term used at 2 different colleges before.
 * (preceding unsigned is the first ever contribution by Whet9j 02:45, August 31, 2005)
 * Delete. Two Yahoo search engine hits does not notability confer. Even if the term exists, Wikipedia is not a (slang) dictionary. MCB 05:30, 31 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete per other delete voters. Not verifiable since no references are provided. Quale 17:38, 31 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete Term almost certainly does not exist: the scenario given wouldn't happen often enough for there to be a term for it. Even if it is a real term used by somebody somewhere, this isn't a slang dictionary anyway. Andrew Lenahan - St ar bli nd  02:14, September 1, 2005 (UTC)
 * Do Not Delete There are terms for almost every scenario in poker. The term was established during the latter stages of the Civil Rights Movement.
 * (preceding unsigned comment by 69.139.85.183 02:41, September 1, 2005); this is the author of the article in question
 * Speedy delete as nonsense. Sasquatch   讲  看  02:46, September 1, 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep I know this isn't the most eloquent phrase in the world but it really is used. If you take this out, you'll need to take out the many other ethnic and racial slurs I've found on wikipedia.  Cracker has a page for Pete's sake.  It would not be fair to take something like this out when many people have heard it.  I've heard it, not proud of it, but heard it before.  I say it should stay.  Hubris 09:14, 1 September 2005 (UTC) first ever contribution of this user Special:Contributions/Hubris
 * Delete. The term is not used anywhere except in this person's head who keeps make new identities to make single nonsense posts here pretending his stupid term has existed for years, despite it appearing nowhere on the Internet except where he has posted it. Ugh. 2005 01:51, September 2, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete as unverifiable. Google has no evidence that this term has ever been used except in reference to this Wikipedia article. --Metropolitan90 06:45, September 3, 2005 (UTC)

 * Do NOT delete. I have heard this used in many a poker game.  I believe it was used on Celebrity Poker at one point.
 * Above is yet another sockpuppet of the troll, see Contribs under Bushwhacked. 2005 22:04, September 5, 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep Believe it or not, I was at a poker game the other day and someone used this phrase. Maybe the trolls know something we don't, but I couldn't believe my ears when I heard it. MrSpleen7 09:02 September 6, 2005 (UTC) first ever contribution of this user Special:Contributions/MrSpleen7
 * Abstain, but perhaps some kind sould could explain to me (I am not an American) how the term is "inherently controversial"? Or better, add the explanation to Tubman. -- Aleph4 16:22, 6 September 2005 (UTC)
 * It is not "controversial". The term simply doesn't exist except in the troll's head. Harriet Tubman was an anti-slavery activist in the 19th century. Apparently the troll thinks naming two black queens after a black woman is funny, and that the name "tubman" itself is somehow funny. The troll has been vandalizing all over the encyclopedia, and this stupid article is just another bit of his childish vandalism. 2005 22:01, September 6, 2005 (UTC)
 * Also note the troll's vandalizing of the main Harriet Tubman article. 2005 22:10, September 6, 2005 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in an undeletion request). No further edits should be made to this page.


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Mele

 This page is an archive of the proposed deletion of the article below. Further comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or on a Votes for Undeletion nomination). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was delete. Nufy8 03:52, 7 September 2005 (UTC)

Mele
Suspect hoax def. concerning Iranian soccer player. 5 Google hits on "Mohammad Payam Saadat Sarmadi" all point here. Information is not verifiable. Eddie.willers 03:30, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Can't find any info on him, either. Will change vote if corrected, of course. Grayum 10:05, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. No such player exists in Iranian football. User:Nokhodi 15:30, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in an undeletion request). No further edits should be made to this page.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Mele


text:
The Lonely Island

The Lonely Island is an American comedy trio, formed by Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer in Berkeley, California, in 2001. They have written for and starred in the American TV program Saturday Night Live (SNL).

The three first met in junior high. After graduating from college, they regrouped and moved to Los Angeles, where they struggled to find work and began making short films, combining absurdist comedy and occasionally music. Among the first performers to post their material on the Internet, they involved themselves with Channel 101, a non-profit monthly short film festival. Their popularity at the screenings led to unsuccessful pilot deals with Fox and Comedy Central and a writing job for the 2005 MTV Movie Awards. Subsequently, that show's host, Jimmy Fallon, recommended them to Lorne Michaels, the creator of Saturday Night Live.

The group was hired for SNL in 2005, with all three as writers and Samberg as a featured player. Bypassing the traditional process of pitching, they recorded their own material independently and submitted it to the program. Their second sketch to air, "Lazy Sunday", became an internet sensation, the first of many viral videos they produced while at SNL. They led their own division at the program — SNL Digital Shorts — which led to numerous viral videos, including "Motherlover", "Dick in a Box", "Jizz in My Pants", "I'm on a Boat", "Like a Boss", "I Just Had Sex", "Jack Sparrow", and "YOLO". Their musical comedic work has comprised four full studio albums: Incredibad (2009), Turtleneck & Chain (2011), The Wack Album (2013), and The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience (2019), along with a soundtrack album for their 2016 film Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. The three retired from SNL in the early 2010s, but occasionally make guest appearances.

The troupe has written, directed and starred in two feature-length films, Hot Rod, released in 2007, and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, co-produced by Judd Apatow and released in 2016. The group also produced the 2020 film Palm Springs, starring Samberg and Cristin Milioti.

Formation and early years (1990–2004)
The Lonely Island first formed at Willard Junior High School in Berkeley, California, in the early 1990s. Schaffer and Taccone first met in seventh grade Spanish class, and the group later expanded to include Samberg, a year behind the two. The trio belonged to a large group of friends interested in skateboarding. Each had plans to pursue the arts following their graduation from Berkeley High School, but they split apart, attending different colleges. Taccone attended the University of California, Los Angeles to study theatre, while Schaffer and Samberg both attended the University of California, Santa Cruz as film students. Samberg later transferred to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in his sophomore year, with the three communicating over the phone during this period. Following college, the trio regrouped in Berkeley to decide their future. Their two options — either stay in Berkeley and begin making short films or move to Los Angeles, "get real jobs," and eventually begin making films —ended in a compromise.

In September 2000, they moved to Los Angeles and created their website, which would host short films. They named themselves The Lonely Island, after the "modest, low-rent" L.A. apartment that they shared with roommates Chester Tam and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin. The latter was a musician, and their late nights together often led to the trio making comedic rap songs, which they began to upload online. Their videos were produced via borrowed equipment and edited on a single PowerMac, and they were first uploaded to websites such as iFilm and Heavy.com. Their first "fake rap" song, "Ka-Blamo!", was uploaded in September 2001. They released their work under Creative Commons licenses, which allowed anyone to distribute their content (such as blogs and peer-to-peer networks), perhaps leading to wider audiences. In December 2001, they produced a pilot for a television series titled The Lonely Island; the first episode involved the three becoming addicted to teeth whitening products. The video gained the trio agents, and it was notable for a scene in which they mug an elderly woman. During the shoot, actor Kiefer Sutherland, not realizing it was a video, stopped and tried to intervene. Their agents requested they convert their shorts to VHS tape because they did not have high-speed internet at the time.

Unable to secure full-time positions, the trio took temporary jobs; one season, they worked at Fox Television over the holidays, tying ribbons around metal snowflakes the studio gifted to their employees. Eventually, Schaffer worked as an assistant at a movie poster company, while Taccone and Samberg became production assistants on Spin City. In 2003, they produced a second pilot for a The Lonely Island series. The film premiered at the Comedy Central Stage in Los Angeles, the cable network's proving ground for new talent. The network purchased the series, but further scripts did not move forward. They became involved with Super Midnight Movie Club, a club hosted by screenwriters Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab, which evolved into Channel 101, a non-profit hosting monthly short film festivals. Their first submission, Ignition TV Buzz Countdown, was voted back after its premiere, but ended after two episodes. Their second Channel 101 series, The 'Bu, is a parody of Fox's The O.C. and was enormously successful at the screenings, running for eight episodes. It was pivotal in their early successes, demonstrating to television executives their popularity among tastemakers and a younger audience. Samberg's former producer at Spin City passed along the trio's demo reel to the United Talent Agency, which would lead them to their first major television deal.

Early sketches and "Lazy Sunday"
Following their success with The 'Bu, The Lonely Island secured a pitch meeting with Fox's then-president Gail Berman. There, the trio showed executives the video for "Just 2 Guyz", which received a positive reception. Following their deal with Fox, they produced a pilot titled Awesometown, over which the network passed. MTV and Comedy Central also passed on the series. Consequently, they began to question whether their material was humorous enough for a wide audience. They subsequently released two versions of the pilot on their website, the Fox-edited version and a "director's cut". Their increasing profile within Los Angeles comedy circles led to a writing job at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, hosted by then-current Saturday Night Live cast-member Jimmy Fallon. Fallon's praise, in addition to word of mouth spreading to others at SNL, among them Tina Fey and creator Lorne Michaels, led the trio to audition for the series in mid-2005. For his audition, Samberg impersonated a 1980s jogger, commenting on the recession. SNL hired the trio in late August, with Taccone and Schaffer as writers and Samberg as a featured player. Samberg was the second new cast addition that season, alongside The Second City alumnus Bill Hader. Their debut episode premiered on October 1, 2005.

Schaffer and Taccone had been on the writing staff for nearly three months, yet to this point, they had only two live sketches that survived the dress rehearsal process and aired. By Thanksgiving, the duo felt antsy, and decided to produce a parody of "The Whisper Song" by the Ying Yang Twins as "The Bing Bong Brothers" (the song mainly consisting of a whispered refrain, "You will like our penises"). The video became a viral sensation and was picked up by G4's Attack of the Show. Encouraged by the response, the trio would incorporate that method into their next work for SNL. Their next sketch on SNL, "Lettuce Heads", consists of Samberg and Will Forte holding a serious discussion while intermittently eating whole heads of lettuce bite-by-bite. In creating the short, they decided to bypass the pitching process, as they were so new to the show that it would have been dismissed as too expensive. Their second video was turned down as it was deemed too similar.

In December, 2005, the trio, alongside Chris Parnell, wrote and recorded "Lazy Sunday", a short rap song. Samberg and Parnell adopt the brash personas of hardcore rappers, while the song follows their quest to achieve their "ultimate goal" of attending a matinee of the fantasy film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It was recorded on a laptop in their offices at SNL, while it was shot throughout Manhattan the next day. In the moments preceding the show's live performance and broadcast, the team learned from Michaels that "Lazy Sunday" would be shown on that night's show. The three comedians were very worried about how the video would be received by the studio audience.

"Lazy Sunday" aired on December 17, 2005, when the comedy troupe were little known to even Saturday Night Live's most devout fans. By the following morning, it had spread online nationwide. Schaffer and Taccone also were contacted by friends who heard the track played on radio stations and in bars. "Lazy Sunday" inspired a line of T-shirts, released during the initial boom of popularity in the weeks after its release. The film was one of the first viral YouTube videos, and it increased the trio's recognizability, particularly Samberg's, nearly overnight. Their success, according to New York, "forced NBC into the iPod age"; the short was initially available after its broadcast through the iTunes Music Store, made free for subscribers. The original upload was removed by NBC for copyright violation in February 2006, and the short wasn't reuploaded to YouTube until August 2013.

Following his stardom on SNL, Samberg became a celebrity, being covered in tabloid publications. A profile of Island in The New York Times led to a record deal and their own division at SNL: SNL Digital Shorts, which the group controlled with complete autonomy. In March 2006, the trio produced their second viral hit, "Natalie's Rap". In the sketch, actress Natalie Portman acts as a gangsta rap star, juxtaposing her clean-cut, Harvard-educated image with profane and shocking lyrics. Portman was the host of the program that week and came to the three having seen "Lazy Sunday".

Their rise to fame was highlighted by a combination of "new" and "old" media, with Schaffer later remarking: "We had two things happening at once. First, we had a national TV show broadcasting our video, but we also had that moment in technology when anyone could stream it, so it could have that second life online. It wasn't just for early adopters or college kids with fast connections. Now it was for, like, my mom."

Further work: "Dick in a Box" and Hot Rod
Much of their work on Saturday Night Live further explored music. Their office—described by Taccone as "the nastiest dorm room you've ever been in"—doubled as a recording studio and editing bay. Multiple artists in the ensuing years would record their vocals for The Lonely Island songs on a $500 microphone in the office (which was not equipped with sound-proofing). The songs were recorded without professional audio engineers, and each video was edited by Taccone, Schaffer, and Samberg.

Creator Lorne Michaels was often confused by the trio's pitches. His attitude towards their work is referenced in the Digital Shorts series "Laser Cats", which consisted of Samberg and Hader brandishing cats as weapons that shoot lasers from their mouths. In each sketch, Michaels appears at the end, dismissing the visual quality and stupidity of concept. As such, he decided to stop taking their pitches and allow them independence from the program, producing their efforts themselves and turning them in.

In the summer of 2006, The Lonely Island filmed their first feature film, Hot Rod, in Vancouver. The film concerns Rod Kimble (Samberg), an Evel Knievel-type daredevil who dreams of jumping 15 school buses on a moped. The role was originally conceived for Will Ferrell before Samberg signed on. Subsequently, the trio re-wrote much of the original script to match their standards: "Which is another way of saying, just dumb it down," said Schaffer. The film was released in August 2007 to mediocre reviews and a tepid box office reaction. Despite this, the film later attracted a cult following; in 2012, The A.V. Club wrote that it differentiated itself from other Lorne Michaels–produced comedies: "They may be just as poorly received, but their rhythms are unpredictable and exciting, shocked to life by moments of anti-comedy and wacky deconstruction. Hardcore comedy devotees pick up on them like a dog whistle."

The Lonely Island's next major viral success came in December 2006, when they collaborated with singer Justin Timberlake for the Digital Short "Dick in a Box", starring Samberg and Timberlake as R&B-crooning balladeers who package their genitals as Christmas gifts. Taccone came up with the "dick in a box" premise after Michaels asked Samberg to write a sketch showcasing Timberlake's voice. Timberlake recalled that the musicians were "laughing hysterically" during its production, and that the "delirium of no sleep" contributed to the humor of the song. The online version of the short—which, like its predecessors, attracted millions of views on YouTube—was uncensored, creating controversy. "In the process Saturday Night Live appears to have become the first scripted comedy on a broadcast network to use the Web to make an end-run around the prying eyes of both its internal censors and those of the Federal Communications Commission, whose jurisdiction over “Saturday Night Live” effectively ends at the Web frontier," said Jaques Steinberg of The New York Times. The song won a Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.

Timberlake also made a guest appearance in the group's subsequent track "Jizz in My Pants"

Incredibad and continued viral success
In the summer of 2008, the trio rented a home in Los Angeles and began recording their debut studio album, Incredibad (2009), over the course of three months. The album is composed of new songs and pre-existing songs debuted and recorded for SNL. Many songs recorded for the album would later premiere as Digital Shorts in the following season of SNL. In contrast to their work at SNL, the troupe went through each song in detail, taking their time to craft the album. For the first time, the group incorporated professional mixing and mastering, leading to an improved sound quality of the recordings. The first song they created for the record "Jizz in My Pants", was the lead single and debuted as an SNL Digital Short in December 2008. It received millions of views, and was their first single to go platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Incredibad was released a dual CD/DVD set in February 2009. Their next significant viral success was "I'm on a Boat", a collaboration with T-Pain that spoofs hip-hop excess. The trio had met T-Pain when he guested on SNL a year prior, who confirmed he was a fan of Hot Rod. "I'm on a Boat" was a bigger success than its predecessor, going double-platinum and earning a nomination for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 52nd Grammy Awards. Although not an official single, based on digital downloads, "Like a Boss" was certified gold. The record sold nearly 250,000 units in 2009, making it the year's eighth bestselling hip hop album.

Taccone quit SNL in 2010, but nevertheless returned for the following seasons to produce Digital Shorts related to their musical work.

Turtleneck & Chain and videos
The group returned to Los Angeles, renting the same home and setting up a makeshift studio to record Turtleneck & Chain (2011), their follow-up to Incredibad. On January 29, 2011, the group debuted "The Creep" featuring Nicki Minaj and a cameo by filmmaker John Waters, on SNL and YouTube. On March 15, 2011, Direct Current Music reported that the album would be named Turtleneck & Chain and would be released on May 10, 2011. On April 1, 2011, the Lonely Island appeared as guests on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, where they premiered the lead track, "We're Back!", as well as the new album cover. On April 19, 2011, the group released "Motherlover" featuring Justin Timberlake as the fourth single from the album. This song was last featured on season 34 of SNL.

The group held a fundraiser to promote their new album on April 16, 2011 at Amoeba Music in Berkeley, California. There were only 250 tickets available, and the only way to obtain a ticket was to preorder their album. They hosted a Q&A session and an autograph session. Shortly after, "Motherlover" was released on iTunes. On May 7, they released a new track, "Jack Sparrow", featuring Michael Bolton singing passionately about the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. Turtleneck & Chain was both Emmy nominated for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics and Grammy nominated for Best Comedy Album.

Shortly after the release of the album, the group premiered a new song, "3-Way (The Golden Rule)", featuring Timberlake and Lady Gaga, on the season finale of SNL. Timberlake and Gaga were guests for the show, and the song re-approaches territory explored in "Dick in a Box" and "Motherlover". Much like their past work, it was recorded and shot in the week preceding the broadcast. At the end of the 2011–2012 season of SNL, Samberg's last season on the cast, a sequel to "Lazy Sunday" was released, also with Chris Parnell.

Taccone and Samberg left at the end of the program's 2011–12 season. By this time, each member of the group increasingly began taking time off from SNL: Taccone for television work, Schaffer for directorial efforts (The Watch), and Samberg with leading film roles. The trio found it increasingly difficult to get together and work, as they all lived in different cities. In an interview with Splitsider the following year, they mentioned that different responsibilities and work in other fields strengthened their work as a unit: "I think if we just did this [the Lonely Island] all the time, then it maybe we would be in trouble, but going off and doing other things reminds us it's more fun to work with your friends," said Schaffer.

The Wack Album
Despite these obstacles, the trio regrouped in late 2012 to begin recording their third album for Republic Records, which they titled The Wack Album (a homage to minimalist titles such as The White Album). Rather than rent the same home in Encino, they cut the album in nearby Los Feliz at a home equipped with a professional recording unit. Taccone and Samberg again lived together; Schaffer, now with a family, simply drove over each day to record and write. For the album's production, they solidified song premises long before receiving beats for each song, which came from both high-level and low-level producers. In some cases, the trio made the beats themselves.

The album's lead single, "YOLO" featuring Adam Levine and Kendrick Lamar, with a prominent sample from the song Whirring from the Welsh band The Joy Formidable, premiered on SNL in January 2013. The song is an anthem parodying the phrase "you only live once" and a culture lacking caution and responsibility. It was their first return to SNL since their respective departures; as such, the video was co-funded by the program. To promote the album, the trio released music videos for each song each Wednesday ("Wack Wednesdays") leading up to its release. Among the music videos produced include "Diaper Money" (a trap song regarding adulthood, aging, and impending death), "Semicolon" (which spoofs the popularity of hashtag rap), and "Go Kindergarten". "Spring Break Anthem" juxtaposes raucous and irresponsible spring break behavior with descriptions of same-sex marriage. "We wanted to show just how ridiculous it is that spring break behavior is considered normal and gay marriage is insane when it's actually the opposite," said Schaffer. The group wanted to mount a full-scale tour behind the album, but other opportunities (Samberg's comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine was just ordered as a series by Fox at the time) made it difficult.

"Everything is Awesome", Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, and Palm Springs
In early 2014, the group collaborated to write "Everything Is Awesome," a song featured in The Lego Movie, with Shawn Patterson, Joshua Bartholomew, and Lisa Harriton. The song, performed by Tegan and Sara, also features in The Lonely Island. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 87th Academy Awards.

In 2014, the troupe signed a deal with Fox to develop serial comedy programming for digital platforms and were listed on New Media Rockstars Top 100 YouTube Channels, ranked at number 70. Later that year, Universal Studios acquired a pitch from the trio for a second feature film, which was co-produced by Judd Apatow. Schaffer and Taccone co-directed the film, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, which was released on June 3, 2016 along with a corresponding soundtrack album. The trio promoted the film by airing a Digital Short for the track "Finest Girl (Bin Laden Song)" during the Saturday Night Live season 41 finale.

The day after the 90th Academy Awards the group premiered a song on YouTube titled "Why Not Me" which they claimed was commissioned by the academy although not used because it was "financially and logistically impossible." The song features characters from various movies who did not get nominated sing about being snubbed by the Academy. It was not immediately clear if the group was actually asked by the Academy to perform or if this was part of the joke.

In 2018, Lonely Island held their first live performance at Clusterfest, a comedy festival in San Francisco hosted by Comedy Central. Several of their featured guests appeared at the festival, including Chris Parnell and Michael Bolton.

In 2020, the group produced the romantic comedy film Palm Springs starring Samberg and Cristin Milioti. The film was released at Sundance Film Festival in January 2020 and released widely via Hulu on July 10, 2020. The film received positive reviews from critics, with praise for the performances and concept.

Netflix specials and television production work
In 2017, the group released Michael Bolton's Big, Sexy Valentine's Day Special, a Netflix special starring Michael Bolton and featuring numerous cameos from celebrities and SNL cast members. On May 23, 2019, the group released a Netflix special, advertised as a "visual poem" to go with a new album, The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience, itself framed as a rap album written and performed by baseball players Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire in the 1980s, while the pair were known as the Bash Brothers while playing for the Oakland Athletics.

As part of the team's television production contract, several programs produced by The Lonely Island began airing. Party Over Here, a sketch comedy series, aired on Fox in 2016 but was cancelled after one season. The next year, I'm Sorry, a sitcom starring Andrea Savage and produced by the Lonely Island along with Adam McKay and Will Ferrell, began airing on TruTV In 2018, the group created and produced Alone Together, which had 2 seasons on Freeform. The next year saw the release of PEN15, comedy web television series focusing on middle school, and airing on Hulu.

Style
The comedic influences of the group include SNL forebears such as Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, Mike Myers, Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, the Monty Python troupe and the Marx Brothers. While the group is most strongly inspired by hip-hop and R&B, the lyrics are commonly rooted in self-deprecation as is reflected in a 2011 interview conducted shortly before the release of Turtleneck and Chain. The Lonely Island's debut Incredibad was produced with the goal in mind to make an impact on listeners just as They're All Gonna Laugh At You (1993), a musical comedy album by Adam Sandler, had heavily influenced Samberg. Songs by the Lonely Island rarely exceed three minutes, as brevity is very important to the troupe, who believe that is "about as much as the audience can stand."

The group parody a variety of aspects of rap music, by inverting the machismo of much rap music by rapping with enthusiasm about their erectile dysfunction problems ("We're Back!"), rapping in a bombastic tone about mundane subjects ("Lazy Sunday"), or diss tracks by recording a song featuring death threats in deliberately weedy voices ("We'll Kill You"). Much rap music tends to feature inventive boasting about the speaker's wealth, power or sex appeal, and the group have regularly inverted this by creating deliberately repetitive tracks that make similar statements in an extremely literal way ("I Just Had Sex", "I'm on a Boat"). "I'm on a Boat", created to parody the style of many rap music videos, avoids making any comment about the group's wealth besides the fact that they are, indeed, standing on a boat in the music video. Many of their songs, both during and after their tenure on SNL, are produced with accompanying videos.

The group's popularity through television has allowed them to access much higher-end production and special guests than most comedy music acts. Nicki Minaj was in "The Creep," and Rihanna was in "Shy Ronnie". "I Just Had Sex" features production by DJ Frank E and Akon as a special guest, while Justin Timberlake has appeared in "Dick in a Box", "Mother Lover" and "3-Way (The Golden Rule)."

Discography

 * Incredibad (2009)
 * Turtleneck & Chain (2011)
 * The Wack Album (2013)
 * Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)
 * The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience (2019)

title: The Lonely Island


text:
It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown

It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown is the 16th prime-time animated television special based on the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. It originally aired on October 24, 1977, on the CBS-TV network. In this special, Charlie Brown worries when he is chosen to kiss his crush in a homecoming parade.

The special was directed by Phil Roman and produced by Bill Melendez. It was the first Peanuts special (and second Peanuts project overall) following the death of composer and jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi, who died on February 6, 1976, a year before the special began airing. Following Guaraldi's death, the music was composed by Ed Bogas.

Plot
Charlie Brown's school has their annual Homecoming parade and football game. He and Linus are on the team, who are the escorts for the Queen and her court. During the parade, Linus mentions that Charlie Brown himself will be escorting the Queen who, to Charlie Brown's shock, is the Little Red-Haired Girl herself (whose name in the special is Heather). But when Linus adds the Homecoming tradition of giving the queen a kiss in front of everyone before the first dance, Charlie Brown hyperventilates and falls off the float.

The game begins with Charlie Brown as kicker and Lucy as his placekick setter. But even in a real football game, Lucy still humiliates Charlie Brown, pulling the ball away four times during the game as he tries to kick it, including a crucial field goal attempt in the last thirty seconds. The team loses by one point, and Charlie Brown is wrongfully blamed by team captain Peppermint Patty joined by Lucy and Frieda at the ballroom that evening. Despite the indignity, Charlie Brown remains faithful to his duty and escorts Queen Heather to the middle of the dance floor, and then summons the courage to kiss her on the cheek. From that moment forward Charlie Brown is in a euphoric state until, the first thing he knows, he finds himself falling into his own bed.

Charlie Brown wakes up the next morning with no memory of what happened after the kiss. He meets with Linus, who tells him that he surprised everyone when he kissed Heather, but even more so when he took to the dance floor with her and the other girls in the court doing all of the latest dances. Linus sums it all up saying that though they lost the game, Charlie Brown took the honors at the dance. In disbelief, Charlie Brown replies, "What good is it to do anything, Linus, if you can't remember what you did?" Regardless, Linus reminds him that at least it was his first kiss and the story ends with him smiling with quiet satisfaction.

Voice cast
Note: Sally Brown, Marcie, Schroeder, Pig-Pen, Violet, Shermy, and the Little Red-Haired Girl appear, but they are silent.
 * Arrin Skelley as Charlie Brown
 * Peter Robbins – Charlie Brown's screaming voice (archived)
 * Daniel Anderson as Linus van Pelt
 * Michelle Muller as Lucy van Pelt
 * Laura Planting as Peppermint Patty
 * Roseline Rubens as Frieda
 * Ronald Hendrix as Franklin
 * Sarah Beach, Casey Carlson and Gail M.Davis as the cheerleaders
 * Bill Melendez as Snoopy and Woodstock

Critical reception
Audience reaction was primarily positive, but there were two elements about this special that initially caused negative reaction from viewers that one of them that sparked controversy:

 * The Little Red-Haired Girl was never seen in the daily comics (except in silhouette in a later strip from May 1998), nor was she ever referred to by her real name. Schulz himself admitted that he could not draw her to readers' satisfaction, much less his own, but the storyline of the TV special forced the issue.
 * In the special's initial broadcast, Charlie Brown was blamed by most of his teammates (especially Peppermint Patty and Lucy) for bungling kicks and losing the game, though it was clearly obvious that Lucy was the culprit. Many viewers protested; while they could accept Lucy pulling the ball away, they could not accept Charlie Brown's being blamed for the loss. As a result, in all subsequent broadcasts and home video releases, the offending lines by Peppermint Patty ("Okay, Chuck, you really goofed up on that play!" and "Chuck, you can't do anything right!") were made lower and backmasked.

title: It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Wilhelmina Sadrinna

 This page is an archive of the proposed deletion of the article below. Further comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or on a Votes for Undeletion nomination). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was No Consensus. R e  dwolf24  (talk) 02:38, 9 September 2005 (UTC) ===Maria Aichele, Elfriede Motzkuhn, Louise Nauth, Klara Opitz, Elisabeth Peschke, Therese Pichler, Eleonore Poelsleitner, Gertrud Rabestein, Antonia Rachbauer, Charlotte Rafoth, Elsa Rascher, Lieschen Rech, Anna Reischer, Hildegard Reiterer, Erna Rose, Wilhelmina Sadrinna, Friederike Schneider, Katja Schot=== The documentation of Nazi crimes is surely a worthy task. However, the question here is whether each individual concentration camp guard should have a Wikipedia page. There is an entire Category:Personnel of Nazi concentration camps, which is populated with bios of mostly non-notable female guards. (BTW, where are all the men?). One of those was deleted in early August at Votes for deletion/Thea Miesl. I am listing only a few of the least interesting ones here. Since this is quite a lot of work, more will follow only if these pages get deleted. My vote is delete. Martg76 03:31, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
 * My impulse here, given the importance of the parent subject matter, is to keep; I dislike proliferation of articles when a list would do (especially when, um, people make articles for individual rocks in the ocean), but there is nothing inherently wrong with it. Sdedeo 04:11, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete and make into a list (listify, in the jargon). Most of the material in this articles is not interesting, but having a list of them is possibly worthwhile. In fact, didn't such a list go through VfD with a keep just recently? -Splash 04:23, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete the articles. On several VfD's we have deleted murderers and other criminals who were not notable;  these seem to be the same ilk.  I am also concerned that at least the several articles I looked at listed no sources and stated that the individual not prosecuted for her war crimes.  Thus, we are listing people who haven't even been prosecuted, let alone convicted.  There may well be a place for these stories somewhere, but they fail to meet the standards of notability and being verifiable. -- DS1953 04:44, August 30, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete and create one page. Manik Raina 06:58, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
 * delete Listify those cases that can be verified if you want. --Doc (?) 08:28, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep Klara Opitz and Gertrud Rabestein, who were convicted of war crimes. Listify the others (if the closing admin doesn't want to go through with this much work, I can).--Scimitar parley 14:12, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete all - Let's listify them instead. - Hahnchen 16:02, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep convicts, merge others into a list. -- BD2412 talk 17:34, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep those convicted of war crimes, convert the others to a list with a brief outline of the camps they were guards in as per Scimitar. Capitalistroadster 18:19, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete all. Listify/merge entries into a single page. Syrae Faileas 21:19, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete all, and where are all the men? Coffee 22:33, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
 * What do you mean men? Isn't this a list of German Dominatrixes? - Hahnchen 01:00, 31 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete as per DS1953. -- Kjkolb 14:01, August 31, 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep the two with war crimes convictions; listify the others. Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 06:32, 3 September 2005 (UTC)
 * Listify, this long line of larruping ladies Alf melmac  07:29, 4 September 2005 (UTC)
 * Listify the majority, keep special cases where clear notability can be established. Usrnme h8er 11:18, 8 September 2005 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in an undeletion request). No further edits should be made to this page.


text:
User talk:Richardet

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November 2013
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updating ?
by removing ext links ? it would be useful for an explanation somewhere - either in the edit summary, or somewhere as it looks like removing legit links from a quick look, unless I am missing something ? JarrahTree 04:31, 5 October 2019 (UTC)

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title: User talk:Richardet


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title: User talk:69.229.252.253


text:
Revelations (Stargate SG-1)

"Revelations" is the Season 5 finale episode  of the science fiction television series Stargate SG-1. This episode was nominated for an Emmy in the category "Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series", and won a Gemini Award in the category "Best Visual Effects".

Plot
An Asgard mothership commanded by Thor confronts two Goa'uld pyramid ships over an alien planet under Asgard protection. The Goa'uld commander, Osiris, is defiant and for good reason: when Thor opens fire, his weapons fail to penetrate the Goa'uld ships' shields. At Stargate Command, still grieving Daniel Jackson's recent death, the Asgard Freyr arrives with the news of Thor's defeat and that the Goa'uld have developed advanced technologies that threaten all of the worlds under Asgard protection, including Earth. For the moment, he enlists SG-1 on a mission to save the Asgard scientist Heimdall before he is captured by Osiris' master Anubis.

SG-1 arrives at Heimdall's laboratory in a Goa'uld cargo ship, where they learn that Heimdall is researching ways to reverse the genetic degradation in the Asgard race, caused by repeated cloning. Heimdall informs them that Thor is alive; O'Neill and Teal'c ring onto Osiris' ship, while Carter guides them from the lab. However, Osiris subdues them by pumping poisonous gas onto their deck. Osiris also sends troops to the surface, and eventually breaks into the laboratory and captures Carter. Meanwhile, Anubis arrives and probes Thor's mind with a device that links his brain to the computer. This inadvertently gives Thor access to the ship systems, allowing him to free O'Neill and Teal'c. They disable the shields on Osiris' ship, allowing Heimdall to beam them, Carter, and Thor onto the cargo ship. They are coming under fire when Freyr arrives with three advanced Asgard ships, forcing Anubis to withdraw. Back at the SGC, Carter informs the others that Thor is in a coma, but that the Asgard may have turned the tide in their war with the Replicators. On their way to dinner, they feel an odd breeze inside the base, suggesting that Daniel may not be completely gone after all.

Production
Daniel Jackson does not appear in person in this episode. However, unexplained events at the end of the episode insinuate the presence of the ascended Jackson. Michael Shanks appears in Thor's voice. This is the last episode where Michael Shanks will be listed in the main cast until season 7. Teryl Rothery (Janet Fraiser) provides the voice of Heimdall. According to the episode audio commentary, Rothery performed her lines on set to help give the actors a reference point. However, Richard Dean Anderson, Chris Judge and Rothery could not keep a straight face as the eye line they were given was a blinking light in Rothery's chest. This episode broke the SG-1 tradition of ending the season half way through the episode, or an end of the season cliffhanger.

Reception
This episode was nominated for an Emmy in the category "Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series", and won a Gemini Award in the category "Best Visual Effects".

title: Revelations (Stargate SG-1)


text:
Czechoslovak koruna

The Czechoslovak koruna (in Czech and Slovak: koruna československá, at times koruna česko-slovenská; koruna means crown) was the currency of Czechoslovakia from 10 April 1919 to 14 March 1939, and from 1 November 1945 to 7 February 1993. For a brief time in 1939 and again in 1993, it was also the currency of both  the separate Czech Republic and Slovakia.

On 8 February 1993, it was replaced by the Czech koruna and the Slovak koruna, both at par.

The (last) ISO 4217 code and the local abbreviations for the koruna were CSK and Kčs. One koruna equalled 100 haléřů (Czech, singular: haléř) or halierov (Slovak, singular: halier). In both languages, the abbreviation h was used. The abbreviation was placed behind the numeric value.

First koruna
A currency called the krone in German and koruna in Czech was introduced in Austria-Hungary on 11 September 1892, as the first modern gold-based currency in the area. After the creation of an independent Czechoslovakia in 1918, an urgent need emerged for the establishment of a new currency system that would distinguish itself from the currencies of the other newly born countries suffering from inflation. The next year, on 10 April 1919, a currency reform took place, defining the new koruna as equal in value to the Austro-Hungarian krone. The first banknotes came into circulation the same year, the coins three years later, in 1922.

This first koruna circulated until 1939, when separate currencies for Bohemia and Moravia and Slovakia were introduced, at par with the Czechoslovak koruna. These were the Bohemian and Moravian koruna and the Slovak koruna.

Second koruna
The Czechoslovak koruna was re-established in 1945, replacing the two previous currencies at par. As a consequence of the war, the currency had lost much of its value.

Third koruna
The koruna went through a number of further reforms. A particularly drastic one was undertaken in 1953. At that time, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia had to deal with the existence of a double market in the country: a fixed market ensuring basic food availability (a remnant of the postwar quota system); and a free market, in which goods were as much as eight times more expensive but better quality. They decided to declare a currency reform effective from 1 June 1953 and to distribute new banknotes printed in the Soviet Union. The reform had been prepared very quickly and was confidential up to the last minute, but some information leaked anyway, causing a lot of panic.

The night before the deadline, the president of Czechoslovakia, Antonín Zápotocký, made a radio speech, in which he lied to the nation that there was no possibility of a reform and quietened down the inhabitants. The next day, people (those lucky enough not to fit into the category of "capitalistic elements", a pejorative category which the intelligence agency used to blacklist certain individuals) were allowed to change up to 1,500 old korunas for new korunas at the rate of 5 old to 1 new koruna and the rest at the rate of 50 to 1. All insurance stock, state obligations and other commercial papers were nullified. The economic situation of many people got worse, and many petitions and demonstrations broke out, the largest of which took place in Plzeň, where 472 people were arrested.

In 1993, on the breakup of Czechoslovakia, the Czechoslovak koruna split into two independent currencies: the Slovak koruna and the Czech koruna. Accession to the EU in 2004 meant both currencies were slotted to be replaced by the euro once their respective countries met the criteria for economic convergence and there was the political will to do so. The Slovak koruna was replaced by the euro on 1 January 2009; there is currently no set or estimated date for the Czech koruna to be replaced.

Consumer price index
Annual increase in the consumer price index

title: Czechoslovak koruna


text:
User talk:Asdfghjkl123~enwiki

you suck

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text:
Talk:The Lonely Island

Untitled
I'm the creator of this page, it's not made for vanity, I am just a fan of The Lonely Island

 * Nothing wrong with that. Personally, I would like to know more about their background, influences, and other things along those lines, but I understand this is just a starting point.
 * Also, no where in the article does it explain what "The dudes" are. It may seem obvious or trivial, but you do refer to them as that after the initial paragraph, so a section on that might be useful. Finally, a bit more explanation on Chez and his relationship to the group would be welcome. Athenor 17:36, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
 * In the intro section you list I'm on a Boat and Jizz in my Pants as being songs that propelled them to make the album Incredibad; however, the album had already been developed and produced with Jizz in my Pants and I'm on a Boat planned as singles. The source for this info was an interview with Samberg, I would have to track down the magazine. Anyway, point being, that's misinformation in your intro. It would be more appropriate to list Lazy Sunday, Natalie Raps, and Dick in a Box or something along those lines.Brakoholic (talk) 20:29, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

White Power
I just watched White Power episode and I didn't see Kiefer Sutherland in that at all. The article says he was a guest star, ne? So why isn't he in the short? Morhange 05:39, 6 August 2007 (UTC)
 * According to Andy on his Conan appearance he just happen to drive by when they were "beating" up the old lady for money and he thought it was real.  I'm assuming his is the only one with the brake lights flashing...  —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Special:Contributions/ (talk)

 * Yep, his guest appearance is very cameo by TLI's standards, all you can see is the back of his head driving by in a car. Nonetheless, why isn't this sitcom noted at all in the article? If the youtube comments are to believed on Episode 2, it was submitted as a pilot for comedy central, and was apparently rejected. --71.196.147.201 (talk) 23:45, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

notable independent productions italics?
Most of the words in this section are in italics. Also, the previous section, Editors, is unsourced and a stub. Flash man999 (talk) 06:44, 23 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Fixed both these problems. Revert if you want. Flash man999 (talk) 06:48, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Entertainment Weekly Quote
What is the purpose of that quote? It seems to have no correlation to anything anywhere in the article and is totally out of place within the SNL section. I will remove it if some sort of explanation of its relevance isn't given before long.Brakoholic (talk) 20:54, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

 * I'd suggest removing it. I can't figure out what it means and no one has offered an explanation in a year and a half.  I'd take it away myself but I've only edited Wikipedia a few times in the past and it seems sort of presumptuous to make such a bold first move.--Dchumleyii (talk) 18:54, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Parody?
In what way is their music parody? It's comic, sure, but parody? I don't see in what way it is. 86.0.203.4 (talk) 21:00, 15 March 2011 (UTC)
 * It's a parody of styles rather than groups. On a Boat parodies rap/hip-hop, Jack Sparrow parodies Michael Bolton's chorus' seemingly being unrelated to his verses, other songs parody varies aspects of teen culture Cls14 (talk) 17:33, 2 November 2011 (UTC)

what?
"He directed the movie based on the SNL sketch 'MacGruber,' which was released in May 2010. Following the film's release, he did not return to SNL." Could someone please explain that last part? It confuses me greatly. ~ Resister (talk) 21:13, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

 * I did not know this either, but it's cited from an interview. Seems legit.  CrocodilesAreForWimps (talk) 22:26, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Picture
The picture in the article right now is very blurry and cuts out half of Jorma's face. If anyone has a better picture please replace. CrocodilesAreForWimps (talk) 22:23, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Director and actors in "The Watch," director of "MacGruber"
The director of The Watch is a member of The Lonely Island and all three had a cameo in it. I'm not good with the table format on Wikipedia, so can somebody please add that?

The director of MacGruber is also a member of The Lonely Island. Please add that as well.

I find it strange that Neighbors made the filmography list but these two did not. PokeHomsar (talk) 13:37, 21 October 2016 (UTC)

Name
I am trying to figure out how the name "The Lonely Island" actually originated. The sentence "They named themselves The Lonely Island, after the 'modest, low-rent' L.A. apartment they shared" references two articles, but those are not good sources. The article in Wired by Xeni Jardin only says that they shared an apartment. The GQ article is a dead link, although it's available on the Internet Archive. And maybe this is all there is to it: "The trio, who collectively call themselves the Lonely Island - so named because of an apartment they used to share (Schaffer: "Any time you have a group of dudes living in an apartment, they name it"; Samberg: "You know that's just you, right?" - have become the internet's biggest comedy superstars."

But the reason I bring up this question is that I recently read a passage in T.H. White's The Once and Future King that uses this strange expression, and am wondering if it has anything to do with naming the apartment.

Arabicas.Filerons (talk) 10:44, 9 February 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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seems really long and detailed for an encyclopedia entry
Is Wikipedia a repository for every single detail about a subject? This page seems extremely long and detailed, especially considering the relative obscurity of the topic. Can anyone point me to Wikipedia policies that define an encyclopedic entry and what should and should not be included? Thanks! --Greysonsarch (talk) 16:44, 18 May 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:The Lonely Island


text:
WBYU

WBYU (1450 AM) was a radio station licensed in New Orleans, Louisiana and served the New Orleans metropolitan area. The station was owned by The Walt Disney Company and featured programming from Radio Disney (2003–2011).

History
The AM 1450 frequency began on 1420 when WBNO, licensed to Coliseum Place Baptist Church, moved there from 1200 in 1938. The call letters became WNOE on June 23, 1939, shortly after James A. Noe gained control of the station. On March 29, 1941, the FCC shifted most broadcast frequencies nationwide, and WNOE moved to 1450. WNOE moved to 1060 on June 1, 1950, to become a 50 kW station. Royal Broadcasting Corporation began operating WTIX on 1450 on December 5, 1951, with a Classical format. WTIX was sold to Mid Continent Broadcasting, owned by Todd Storz, on September 10, 1953, and the format flipped to Top 40. In 1958, WTIX purchased the 690 frequency from WWEZ and subsequently donated 1450 to the Orleans Parish School Board. WNPS began broadcasting May 7, 1958 with a 600 LP library donated by Mitch Miller and Columbia Records. In the fall of 1966 it broke away from strictly classical music, shifting more to popular music and introducing news and weather reports. WNPS moved to nostalgia and easy listening in 1973 before flipping to country in July 1974. In 1977 the station was sold to Sun Broadcasting, who flipped it to a "contemporary" soft rock & jazz format branded "14-D" that lasted four months. In August 1977 the station flipped to Adult standards playing big band and New Orleans jazz and changed call letters to WWIW (the Way It Was) on September 14. In 1988, easy-listening WBYU-FM abruptly flipped to country, creating a public uproar. WWIW owner David Smith immediately petitioned the FCC for the highly recognizable call letters, and 1450 began broadcasting as WBYU with no format change on November 28, 1988.

In 2001 the station was sold to Beasley Broadcast Group, who flipped the format on April 23 of that year to a brokered health talk format, simulcasting WWNN in Boca Raton, Florida. The non-stop infomercials continued until February 6, 2003, when new owners ABC, Inc., who bought the station in 2002, flipped it to Radio Disney. On September 26, 2011, WBYU went silent as ABC bought a buyer for the station. On September 27, 2012, ABC surrendered WBYU's license to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC cancelled the station's license and deleted the WBYU call sign from their database on October 3, 2012.

title: WBYU


text:
The Good Shepherd (film)

The Good Shepherd is a 2006 American spy film produced and directed by Robert De Niro and starring Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, and De Niro, with an extensive supporting cast. Although it is fictional, loosely based on events in the life of James Jesus Angleton, it is advertised as telling the history of the birth of counterintelligence in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Edward Wilson (played by Damon), a senior CIA officer, discovers a mole in his department following the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. The film delves into Wilson's complex life, starting from his college years at Yale University in 1939, his initiation into the Skull and Bones fraternity, and his recruitment into intelligence work during World War II. His personal life is marked by a strained marriage to Margaret "Clover" Russell, played by Jolie, and a series of affairs that underscore the sacrifices and moral compromises inherent in espionage work. The narrative unfolds through a mix of present-day events and flashbacks, exploring the origins of the CIA, Wilson's involvement in key historical events, and the personal toll of a life dedicated to secrecy and intelligence. The film features an ensemble cast including Alec Baldwin, William Hurt, Joe Pesci, and John Turturro, among others. "The Good Shepherd" is a fictionalized account of the early days of the CIA, blending historical facts with dramatic elements to explore the complexity of intelligence work, and its impact on individual lives.

The film was released on December 22, 2006, to mixed reviews. It grossed $100 million against an estimated $80 million production budget.

Plot
In 1961, the Bay of Pigs invasion ends disastrously. Senior CIA officer Edward Wilson is warned there are suspicions of a "mole" in his department. Returning home, he finds a photograph of a man and woman in bed, and audio tapes that have been tampered with, leaving certain details unclear.

In a flashback to 1939, Wilson is attending Yale University, and is invited to join the Skull and Bones fraternity. During his initiation, he reveals that he discovered but never read the suicide note left by his father Thomas. He was an admiral who had been pegged to serve as Secretary of the Navy until his loyalties were questioned.

FBI agent Sam Murach recruits Wilson to investigate his poetry professor Frederick's ties as a Nazi sympathizer. Once exposed, Frederick resigns. Wilson begins dating Laura, a fellow Yale student who is deaf. After an announcement that World War II has begun in Europe, Laura asks Edward to sleep with her, but stops at the last moment.

In 1940, Wilson attends a party and meets Margaret “Clover” Russell, sister of fellow Bonesman John. He is also introduced to General Bill Sullivan, who tells him the US will soon be compelled to enter the war and offers Edward a job in foreign intelligence. Clover, whose father is a Senator and head of the isolationist America First Committee, is attracted to Edward and he eventually succumbs to Clover's aggressive advances.

While on a date with Laura at the beach, Edward is approached by John, who tells him Clover is pregnant and implies that Edward is obligated to marry her. Laura, reading their lips, walks away. On Edward and Clover's wedding day, he is presented with orders to leave for London.

In London, Edward is reunited with Dr. Fredericks, in reality a British intelligence operative who had recommended Edward for counter-espionage training. Special Operations Executive officer Arch Cummings informs Edward that Fredericks' indiscreet homosexual liaisons pose a security risk, as they make him susceptible to blackmail. Fredericks refuses an offer to retire quietly and is assassinated as a result.

In post-war Berlin, Edward collaborates with Soviet counterpart "Ulysses" in the exchange of captured scientists. During a call home, his son Edward Jr. inadvertently reveals that Clover is having an affair. Edward impulsively sleeps with his office's interpreter Hanna Schiller, but discovers she is a Soviet operative. This results in her murder.

In 1946, Edward returns home and to Washington, DC to a distant Clover, who has resumed use of her birth name Margaret. The two each admit to having had affairs. She says that her brother John was killed in the war. Edward is again approached by General Sullivan, this time to help create the CIA with colleague Richard Hayes, with Phillip Allen as director.

While Edward feels genuine affection for his son, Margaret grows increasingly disenchanted as he continually prioritizes work over family.

Valentin Mironov, a high-ranking KGB defector, presents information about "Ulysses" and warns Edward that he expects other men claiming to be him to seek asylum. While attending a play with Mironov, Edward encounters Laura after many years. They begin an affair, but end it after Margaret receives compromising photographs of them and publicly berates Edward. Another Soviet defector claims to be the real Mironov, accusing the first defector of being a double-agent named Yuri Modin. Tortured and administered liquid LSD, he ridicules his interrogators before hurling himself out a window. The first Mironov offers to take LSD to prove his innocence, but Edward declines.

Edward Jr. follows his father's footsteps in attending Yale and joining Skull and Bones. To the senior Edward's surprise, his son expresses interest in working for the CIA. During an argument about this, Edward admits that he does not love Margaret and married her only because she was pregnant. Margaret begs him to protect their son, which he promises to do.

US relations with Cuba worsen as communist Fidel Castro comes to power. During another party, Edward Jr. overhears his father, Hayes, and Allen discussing the upcoming Bay of Pigs invasion. Edward realizes his son has heard and reminds him of the extreme importance to remain silent. Margaret tells Edward she is leaving him.

In 1961, the CIA conducts deep analysis of the tape recording that Wilson received after the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion; analysts suspect the photograph he also received was taken in Léopoldville, Congo. Traveling there to investigate, Edward learns that his son is renting an apartment and realizes he is the man speaking on the tape. "Ulysses" appears and plays an un-edited recording in which Edward Jr. reveals the Cuban operation to his lover Miriam. After she is identified as a Soviet operative, "Ulysses" offers to protect Edward Jr. if the father Edward will become a double agent. Edward confronts his son, who refuses to believe Miriam is a spy and reveals he has asked her to marry him.

Edward discovers evidence that Mironov is a double agent, and Arch Cummings his co-conspirator. Cummings flees to Moscow, while "Mironov" is arrested by the FBI and deported to the Soviet Union, to almost certain death. Edward meets with "Ulysses" a final time and declines his offer. However, he implicitly agrees that Miriam- although she genuinely loves Edward Jr.- is a threat to both sides. En route to her wedding aboard a private plane, Miriam is assassinated by being thrown to her death by the crew, in fact CIA agents operating on Edward's orders. Edward informs his son of Miriam's death but denies any responsibility. Edward is shaken to learn that Miriam was pregnant.

Edward meets Hayes at the new CIA headquarters, where he notes the Biblical inscription in the lobby: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32)." Philip Allen, whom Murach discovered has been embezzling money for years, is resigning in disgrace. The President has named Hayes as the new Director. Hayes appoints Edward to be the agency's inaugural head of counter-intelligence operations. Edward and Hayes contemplate the fact that agents drop the article "the" when referring to the CIA, likening it to the manner in which Christians refer to God.

Wilson decides finally to read the suicide note of his father. He admitted to being a traitor, begged his family's forgiveness, and urged his son to live with decency and truth. Wilson burns the note and prepares to move into his offices in the new counter-intelligence wing.

Cast

 * Matt Damon as Edward Wilson Sr. He is the film's main character. He is based on aspects of James Jesus Angleton and covert operations specialist Richard Bissell. His false identity in Britain was "Mr. Carlson".
 * Angelina Jolie as Margaret "Clover" Russell Wilson, who shares a name with Allen Dulles's wife.
 * Robert De Niro as General Bill Sullivan, based on William J. Donovan.
 * Alec Baldwin as FBI Agent Sam Murach.
 * William Hurt as CIA Director Philip Allen, likely based on Allen Dulles.
 * Joe Pesci as Joseph Palmi, based partly on Sam Giancana and Santo Trafficante Jr. The Good Shepherd marked Joe Pesci's return to acting after eight years.
 * John Turturro as Ray Brocco, based on Angleton deputy Raymond Rocca.
 * Billy Crudup as Archibald "Arch" Cummings, based on British agent Kim Philby. The character was named for poet E.E. Cummings, who was in fact a confidant of Angleton.
 * Tammy Blanchard as Laura.
 * Michael Gambon as Dr. Fredericks.
 * Timothy Hutton as Admiral Thomas Wilson, based on James Forrestal.
 * John Sessions as Valentin Mironov #1 / Yuri Modin, based on Anatoliy Golitsyn, and on Yuri Modin, the 'legman' KGB operative controlling the 'Cambridge Five'.
 * Keir Dullea as Senator John Russell Sr.
 * Martina Gedeck as Hanna Schiller.
 * Gabriel Macht as John Russell Jr.
 * Lee Pace as Deputy Director Richard Hayes, based on Richard Helms.
 * Eddie Redmayne as Older Edward Wilson Jr.
 * Tommy Nelson as Edward Jr. - Age 6-7
 * Mark Ivanir as Valentin Mironov #2, based on Yuri Nosenko.
 * Oleg Stefan as Stas Siyanko / Ulysses.
 * Liya Kebede as Miriam.

Development
Robert De Niro directed the film, and produced it in conjunction with James G. Robinson and Jane Rosenthal. Academy Award Winning screenwriter, Eric Roth, began work on the movie after abandoning his attempt to adapt Norman Mailer's Harlot's Ghost for the big screen. Just like De Niro's project, Mailer's novel, Harlot's Ghost, is a fictionalized chronicle of the CIA.

Eric Roth originally wrote the screenplay in 1994 for Francis Ford Coppola, and Columbia Pictures. After reading Norman Mailer's Harlot's Ghost, Roth became intrigued by the relations among the people who created the CIA. Coppola ultimately departed from the project, citing his inability to relate to the main characters due to their lack of emotion, but is credited as Co-Executive Producer. Following Coppola's departure, Wayne Wang was tapped to direct, and was in the midst of Pre-Production location scouting when personnel changes in Columbia's production department ended his involvement.

Columbia's new production team opted to give Roth a list of directors to choose from, which included Philip Kaufman. Kaufman and Roth worked together on the project for a year, overhauling the story's narrative structure, and changing it from linear to its final non-linear approach, in which the film moved backward and forward in time. Kaufman believed this change would "give it a more contemporary feeling," and helped provide a more cohesive narrative context. He also thought it provided subtext for the characters' motivations. But, neither this partnership nor the project as conceived survived another dramatic shake-up at the studio. The new studio head halted production as he did not want to make a spy film outside the action genre.

The project languished until John Frankenheimer signed on to make the film with MGM agreeing to purchase the rights. He wanted Robert De Niro to star, as they had just worked well together on Ronin. De Niro had been developing his own spy story about the CIA from the time after the Bay of Pigs Invasion to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and agreed to appear in the film.

During pre-production in 2002, Frankenheimer died. According to producer Jane Rosenthal, the film had been De Niro's pet project for nine years, but it proved difficult to produce prior to 9/11 and had to compete with the actor's busy schedule in films.

The actor said in a 2006 interview just before the film was released, "I had always been interested in the Cold War. I was raised in the Cold War. All of the intelligence stuff was interesting to me". De Niro and Roth had made a deal: if the actor would direct Roth's existing script, Roth would develop De Niro's concept as a screenplay. If The Good Shepherd was commercially successful, their follow-up would be De Niro's 1960s to 1989 pitch.

De Niro took the project to Universal Pictures, where producer Graham King agreed to help finance the $110 million budget. Initially they had a deal with Leonardo DiCaprio, who was interested in playing the film's protagonist, Edward Wilson. De Niro planned to begin production in early 2005, but DiCaprio had to back out due to his scheduling conflict filming The Departed for Martin Scorsese. At this point, King and his backers left the project.

De Niro approached Matt Damon, who was also appearing in The Departed but would be done earlier than DiCaprio. De Niro would have to wait only six months to do the film with him. Initially, Damon had to turn down De Niro's offer because he was scheduled to shoot Steven Soderbergh's The Informant!. But, after Soderbergh agreed to a delay, Damon could sign on to star as Edward Wilson. James Robinson's Morgan Creek Productions agreed to help finance the film with a budget under $90 million. Many of the principal actors, Damon included, would have to waive their usual salaries to keep costs down.

De Niro was not interested in making an action spy movie. "I just like it when things happen for a reason. So I want to downplay the violence, depict it in a muted way. In those days, it was a gentleman's game". He and Roth were also both interested in showing how having absolute power corrupted the leaders of the CIA. Early in production, De Niro said in an interview, "they tried to do what they thought was right. And then, as they went on, they became overconfident and started doing things that are not always in our best interests".

In preparation for the film, De Niro watched such spy films as The Spy Who Came In From the Cold and The Third Man, and the Smiley's People miniseries. He also hired retired CIA officer Milton Bearden to serve as a technical adviser on the film. They had first worked together on Meet the Parents, in which De Niro played a retired CIA officer.

Bearden agreed to take De Niro through Afghanistan to the north-west frontier of Pakistan and into Moscow for a guided tour of intelligence gathering. Damon also spent time with Bearden, visited several of the locations depicted in the film, and read several books on the CIA. Bearden ensured that the historical aspects were correct even as they were hidden by a fictional approach.

Filming
Principal photography began on August 18, 2005, with shooting taking place in New York City, Washington, D.C., London, and the Dominican Republic. Jeannine Oppewall, who had already been nominated for three Academy Awards for her work, was assigned as art director for The Good Shepherd. She earned a fourth Oscar nomination for Best Art Design on this film.

She conducted such extensive research for the film that her notes filled ten to twelve 6 in three-ring binders. It took her a week to organize the number of set locations due to the numerous settings in the script, which included Cuba, Léopoldville, London, Guatemala, Moscow, New York City and New Haven, Connecticut, among other places.

Although the vast majority of the movie was filmed in New York, the only scenes set in New York were filmed at the Kirby Hill Estate on Long Island. As a result, many sets had to be constructed under Oppewall's direction, including a Skull and Bones headquarters and the Berlin set, which was built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The interiors of the CIA were built in the Brooklyn Armory, a large building constructed in 1901 for the United States Cavalry. She visited the CIA headquarters in Washington, D.C., and worked with Bearden to create sets to portray CIA offices, and its Technical and Communications rooms.

Since the lead character Edward Wilson originally aspired to be a poet, Oppewall incorporated many visually poetic symbols into the sets of the film, including numerous mirrors to represent the duplicity of the CIA, full-rigged ships as symbols of state, and eagles, used ironically in complex situations such as suspect interrogations. Her team tracked down furnishings for sets, and found authentic Teletype machines, reel-to-reel tape recorders, and radios used in the CIA during that time.

Music
The music for the film was largely composed by Bruce Fowler and Marcelo Zarvos. They replaced James Horner, who left the project due to creative differences.

But the violin solo is an excerpt from Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto In D. The soundtrack CD mistakenly attributes this solo to Marcelo Zarvos.

Box office
The Good Shepherd was released on December 22, 2006, in 2,215 theaters, grossing $9.9 million on its opening weekend. Ultimately it grossed $100,266,865 worldwide.

Critical response
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 55% based on 171 reviews, with an average rating of 6.14/10. The site's critics consensus states: "Though ambitious and confidently directed by Robert De Niro, The Good Shepherd is ultimately a tedious drama that holds few surprises and succumbs to self-seriousness." At Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.

In her review for The New York Times, Manohla Dargis wrote, "The Good Shepherd is an original story about the C.I.A., and for the filmmakers that story boils down to fathers who fail their sons, a suspect metaphor that here becomes all too ploddingly literal". She praised De Niro's direction: "Among the film's most striking visual tropes is the image of Wilson simply going to work in the capital alongside other similarly dressed men, a spectral army clutching briefcases and silently marching to uncertain victory". Kenneth Turan, in his review for the Los Angeles Times, praised Matt Damon's performance: "Damon, in his second major role of the year (after The Departed) once again demonstrates his ability to convey emotional reserves, to animate a character from the inside out and create a man we can sense has more of an interior life than he is willing to let on".

Time magazine's Richard Corliss also gave Damon positive notice: "Damon is terrific in the role-all-knowing, never overtly expressing a feeling. Indeed, so is everyone else in this intricate, understated but ultimately devastating account of how secrets, when they are left to fester, can become an illness, dangerous to those who keep them, more so to nations that base their policies on them". In his review for The New York Observer, Andrew Sarris wrote, "Still, no previous American film has ventured into this still largely unknown territory with such authority and emotional detachment. For this reason alone, The Good Shepherd is must-see viewing". USA Today gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "What makes the story work so powerfully is his focus on a multidimensional individual—Wilson—thereby creating a stirring personal tale about the inner workings of the clandestine government agency". Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B" rating and Lisa Schwarzbaum praised De Niro's direction and Damon's performance, noting the latter's maturation as an actor.

Newsweek magazine's David Ansen wrote, "For the film's mesmerizing first 50 minutes I thought De Niro might pull off the Godfather of spy movies ... Still, even if the movie's vast reach exceeds its grasp, it's a spellbinding history lesson".

However, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine observed that, "It's tough to slog through a movie that has no pulse". In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Jim Emerson wrote, "If you think George Tenet's Central Intelligence Agency was a disaster, wait until you see Robert De Niro's torpid, ineffectual movie about the history of the agency". Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian gave the film two out of five stars and criticized Damon's performance: "And why is Damon allowed to act in such a callow, boring way? As ever, he looks like he is playing Robin to some imaginary Batman at his side, like Jimmy Stewart and his invisible rabbit. His nasal, unobtrusive voice makes every line sound the same".

Historical accuracy debate
Members of the CIA's History Staff criticized the historical atmosphere depicted by the film. In May 2007, the Center for the Study of Intelligence (Center for the Study of Intelligence), a history group of the CIA, held a round-table with a number of on-staff historians to discuss the film.

The discussion was publicly released as an article; it covered the film's depiction of the OSS and CIA, the accuracy of the film's depiction of both the events and atmosphere of the period, and discussed factual details related to the actual persons on whom some of the film's characters were based. According to the article, the film was meticulous in getting small details (especially artifacts) correct, but the overall depiction of the atmosphere and motivations of the time was flawed. Nicholas Dujmovic said:"A film can take a strictly documentary approach ... If that's the standard, then anyone with historical sense is going to dislike the liberties The Good Shepherd takes. If one approaches the film as a work of art, one must still ask if there is truth in the story-telling. Does it convey the sense of the time: the atmosphere, the motivations, the tone, and the challenges? I think we all agree that the film fails that test as well. It fails because it inserts themes we know from our studies of the period were not there: the overarching economic interest, the WASP mafia dominance, the cynicism, the dark perspective. In reality, the stakes were high during the Cold War; the Soviets were seen to be on the march and very dangerous. It was serious business, and there were many personal costs. And yet, most CIA people were enjoying their work at the same time, as any number of oral history interviews and memoirs will attest."

The same article also describes the depiction of Yale's notable secret society, Skull and Bones, as being an incubator of the U.S. Intelligence Community as "inaccurate."

The film depicts the Bay of Pigs Invasion failure as the result of a leak within the CIA. James K. Galbraith in 2000 wrote that the Taylor Report on the invasion confirmed the existence of a leak:"One of the great travesties of the Cold War surfaced on April 29, 2000, when the Washington Post reported the declassification in full of General Maxwell Taylor's June, 1961 special report on the Bay of Pigs invasion. Partial versions of this document have been available for decades. But only now did its darkest secret spill. Here is what Taylor reported to Kennedy. The Russians knew the date of the invasion (Therefore, Castro also knew.) The CIA, headed by Allen Dulles, knew that the Russians knew (Therefore, they knew the invasion would fail). The leak did not come from the invasion force; it had happened before the Cuban exiles were themselves briefed on the date. Kennedy was not informed. Nor, of course, were the exiles. And knowing all this, Dulles ordered the operation forward."

One of the panel of CIA historians who discussed the movie in a round table strongly disagreed that the leak was crucial, saying:"Even if the operation had initially succeeded, the idea that this paramilitary battalion would have melted into the jungles and mountains to spawn a general uprising against Castro is fatuous. CIA's own analysts judged that Castro's popular support was strong and that he controlled the army and the security services. Even if the group had secured the beachhead, its members eventually would have been hunted down. The supposed leak had nothing to do with historical reality."

Accolades
In 2007, the cast of The Good Shepherd won the Silver Bear of the Berlin International Film Festival for outstanding artistic contribution. It was the only American entry in 2007 to win a prize at the festival.

It was also nominated at the 79th Academy Awards in the category of Best Art Direction (Jeannine Oppewall, Gretchen Rau and Leslie E. Rollins).

Possible sequel
De Niro said he would like to make two sequels to The Good Shepherd, one bringing the action forward from 1961 to 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the other following its protagonist, Edward Wilson, to the present day.

In September 2012, it was announced that Showtime was developing the sequel as a television series, with Roth as executive producer and writer and De Niro directing the pilot. As of July 2021, this project has not come to fruition. In an October 2020 interview, De Niro said that he worked with Eric Roth on a sequel, but that it 'never happened'. However, if someone gave him the money to make a sequel, he would.

title: The Good Shepherd (film)


text:
Rishab Aiyer Ghosh

Rishab Aiyer Ghosh is a Dutch journalist, computer scientist, open-source software advocate and software entrepreneur. He was a founder of Topsy, a social search and analytics company that was acquired by Apple Inc in December 2013.

A former Open Source Initiative board member, he is Founding International and Managing Editor of peer-reviewed journal First Monday, and Programme Leader of Free/Libre and Open Source Software at UNU-MERIT. Ghosh has undertaken several studies on free software, which he terms "FLOSS" - an alternative term for free software which he is credited with coining. FLOSS emphasizes the essential value of the term "libre" (meaning with few or no restrictions). Ghosh's work represents an effort to reshape the global understanding of FLOSS, including the governmental and academic spheres.

title: Rishab Aiyer Ghosh