A media franchise is an intellectual property involving the characters, setting, and trademarks of an original work of media (usually a work of fiction), such as a film, a work of literature, a television program, or a video game. Generally, a whole series is made in that particular medium, along with merchandising and endorsements. Multiple sequels are often planned well in advance and, in the case of motion pictures, actors and directors often sign multi-film deals to ensure their participation.
Some media franchises are accidental, such as the Ma and Pa Kettle series of films (the title characters of which broke out of the 1947 film The Egg and I), and some are planned, such as The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The most profitable film franchises include Star Wars, James Bond, Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings.
Long-running film franchises were common in the studio era, when Hollywood studios had actors and directors under long-term contract. Examples include Andy Hardy, Ma and Pa Kettle, Bulldog Drummond, Superman, Tarzan, and Sherlock Holmes. The longest-running modern film franchises include James Bond, Godzilla, Friday the 13th, and Star Trek. In such cases, even lead actors are often replaced as they age, lose interest, or their characters are killed.
Media franchises tend to cross over from their original media to other forms. Literary franchises are often transported to film, such as Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, and other popular detectives, and Superman, Spider-Man, and other popular comic book superheroes. Television and film franchises are often expanded upon in novels, particularly those in the fantasy and science fiction genres, such as Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Star Wars. Similarly, fantasy and science fiction films and television series are frequently adapted into animated television series or video games, and vice versa.
Non-fiction literary franchises include the ...For Dummies and The Complete Idiot's Guide to... reference books. The Playboy franchise began with the pornographic magazine, and has since expanded to include a television channel, numerous direct to video films, books (including collections of non-pornographic short stories that had originally appeared in the magazine), and countless articles of clothing and other pieces of merchandising.
Roland Winters (1904-1989) was an American actor who portrayed Charlie Chan in six films.
Born Roland Winternitz in Boston, Massachusetts on 22 December 1904, Winters was the son of Felix, a violinist and composer who was teaching at New England Conservatory. In his teens he began appearing in productions from local theater groups around Boston and made his Broadway debut in 1924 in The Firebrand. In 1931 he became the sports announcer for the Braves and Red Sox games on the radio station WNAC. He had a few uncredited film roles in the 1940s (including a brief appearance in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane in 1941), but continued to work in radio until 1947.
Sidney Toler, who had made twenty-two Charlie Chan films after taking over from Warner Oland, had died early in 1947. Monogram Pictures, which had bought the rights to Chan from 20th Century Fox in 1942, decided on Winters as his replacement in the title role of the series. At the age of 44 he was the youngest actor to tackle the role, and was actually some months younger than Keye Luke, who portrayed his "Number One Son" and assistant. Over a two year period he made six Chan films, starting with The Chinese Ring in 1947 and ending with Charlie Chan and the Sky Dragon (also known as The Sky Dragon) in 1949. In between four appearances as Chan in 1948, he also managed to squeeze in roles in three other films. The Monogram Charlie Chan films are regarded as lower quality than the higher-budget 20th Century Fox pictures in which Oland had starred, but Winter's performances are generally rated more highly than the those of Sidney Toler in the later Monogram films. Plans for further Charlie Chan films to be filmed in Europe were shelved after funding problems; Winters and Keye Luke were informed the series had been cancelled as they were preparing to leave for England to begin shooting Charlie Chan in London.
After the series finished, Winters continued to work in film and television up until 1982, including roles in Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, as Elvis' father in Blue Hawaii, and an appearance as the normally elusive McMann of McMann and Tate in Bewitched.
Winters died as the result of a stroke at the Actor's Fund Nursing Home in Englewood, New Jersey on 22 October 1989.
Sidney Toler (April 28, 1874-February 12, 1947) was an actor and writer. Primarily Scottish ancestry, he was the second non-Asian actor to play the role of Charlie Chan. He was married to Viva Tattersall.
Following the death of Warner Oland, Twentieth Century-Fox began the search for a new Charlie Chan. Thirty-four actors were tested before the studio made their decision to choose Sidney Toler. Twentieth Century Fox announced their choice on October 18, 1938, and filming began less then a week later on Charlie Chan in Honolulu a film that had been originally scripted for Warner Oland and Keye Luke.
Sidney Toler was born in Warrensburg, Missouri on April 28, 1874. He showed a very early interest in the theater, acting in an amateur production of Tom Sawyer at the age of seven. Following his graduation from college, he became a professional actor in Kansas City, and then worked for a touring company during the late 1890s. For three decades, he acted on the stage in New York City, working with such future stars as Edward G. Robinson, John Barrymore, Katharine Hepburn, and Humphrey Bogart. In 1921, he co-wrote and directed Golden Days, a comedy starring Helen Hayes. Throughout the 1920s, Toler had an active role in co-writing or directing several other plays including The Exile (1923), Bye, Bye, Barbara (1924), and Ritzy (1930).
In 1929, Toler worked in his first Hollywood film, playing an Englishman in Madame X. For nearly ten years he worked in roles that supported well-known stars in films such as Blonde Venus (1932), starring Marlene Dietrich, The Phantom President (1932), with Claudette Colbert, and Trigger (1934), featuring Clark Gable.
Taking on the role of Charlie Chan following Warner Oland's death in 1938, Toler's portrayal of the Chinese detective in Honolulu was very well received. Besides Toler, there was another change in the series. Sen Yung, as Number Two Son Jimmy, replaced Number One Son Lee, who had been played by Keye Luke. Toler's Chan, rather than merely mimicking the character that Oland had portrayed, had a somewhat sharper edge that was well suited for the rapid changes of the times, both political and cultural. When needed, Charlie Chan now displayed overt sarcasm, usually toward his son Jimmy.
Through four years and eleven films, Toler played Charlie Chan for Twentieth Century-Fox. However, in 1942, following the completion of Castle in the Desert, Fox concluded the series. With war raging throughout the world, the overseas market that had made Charlie Chan films profitable for Fox was now unavailable.
Toler immediately worked to gain the screen rights to the Charlie Chan character from Eleanor Biggers Cole, the widow of Chan's creator, Earl Derr Biggers. He had hoped that Twentieth Century-Fox would distribute new Charlie Chan films if he could find someone willing to finance the new movies. This did not happen. Instead, Monogram Pictures, a lower-budget film studio, picked up the series.
With the release of Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944), the effects of a more limited budget were somewhat apparent. The quality of both writing and production were no match for those of Fox. However, even with their shortcomings, the Charlie Chan films were profitable and successful for Monogram Pictures. During this period, changes were again made. Jimmy was replaced by Benson Fong as Number Three Son Tommy, and Mantan Moreland played the ever-present and popular Birmingham Brown, who brought comedy relief - and Black audiences - to the series.
All told, Toler starred in eleven Charlie Chan films for Monogram Pictures. By the end of 1946, age and illness were affecting him. He was so ill during the filming of Dangerous Money (1946) and Dark Alibi (1946) that he could hardly walk, and it was through an heroic effort worthy of Charlie Chan himself that he was able to complete his last film, The Trap, in August of 1946.
Toler died on February 12, 1947, in Los Angeles, California from intestinal cancer.
Charlie Chan is a fictional Chinese-American detective created by Earl Derr Biggers, reportedly in part under inspiration from the career of Chang Apana. Chan is the hero of a number of books and dozens of movies. At first a sergeant (but later promoted) in the Honolulu Police Department, he and his wife have fourteen children (the oldest of which is colloquially known as "Number One Son") and live in a house on Punchbowl Hill. He is a large man but moves gracefully.
Winklebottom is a garden gnome that Peggy buys a yard sale. Of course, she thinks it's cool, but Hank can't handle the teasing he gets from his drinking buddies.
I keep seeing a commercial with comedian Frank Caliendo as George W. Bush who likes To Recordify and Recordificate with DVR. He calls the DVR a "divver".
It's been a while since I've used some html. Sorry sbout the mistakes. I'm still getting used to making underlined URL links work properly for me on Wordie.
abbreviation for "Bum Fuck Egypt" or "Butt Fuck Egypt" -- in the middle of metaphorical nowhere -- an extremely isolated, inaccessible and inconvenient location.
"Here lies Betelgeuse" is on his tombstone. In the movie, when Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis first meet him they get his business card and don't know how to pronounce his name.
is a word that most people would not use in conversation, but one feels is necessary to know to improve vocabulary for the Scholastic Aptitude Test college entrance examinations.
Thanks for the comment. I haven't seen the word peops spelled out before. I assumed that it would be "peeps". I just did a quick Google search for both "my peops" and "my peeps". The results were inconclusive and didn't really point to any kind of scholarly web pages.
The Codex Seraphinianus is a book written and illustrated by the Italian architect and industrial designer Luigi Serafini during thirty months, from 1976 to 1978.1 The book is approximately 360 pages long (depending on edition), and appears to be a visual encyclopedia of an unknown world, written in one of its languages, an incomprehensible (at least for us) alphabetic writing.
The Necromongers are another elder race that seek a higher level of existence, a form of death, in a place called the Underverse. They plan on taking everyone with them so they travel from planet to planet, decimating the populations in the name of their religion. They are led by the Lord Marshal, who captures Riddick and learns that the two of them share both a past and a future.
Comments by jtfmulder
jtfmulder commented on the word the matrix trilogy
the matrix trilogy
the matrix trilogy
is three films
the matrix
the matrix
the matrixreloaded
the matrixrevolutions
March 1, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word wherever
wherever
March 1, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word celebrity deaths
Celebrity deaths come in threes, or so they say. It really just depends when you start and stop counting
March 1, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the list just-popped-into-my-head
oops. I forgot to move it to the right category. Check out just popped into my head now.
February 29, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word film franchise
thefreedictionary
A media franchise is an intellectual property involving the characters, setting, and trademarks of an original work of media (usually a work of fiction), such as a film, a work of literature, a television program, or a video game. Generally, a whole series is made in that particular medium, along with merchandising and endorsements. Multiple sequels are often planned well in advance and, in the case of motion pictures, actors and directors often sign multi-film deals to ensure their participation.
Some media franchises are accidental, such as the Ma and Pa Kettle series of films (the title characters of which broke out of the 1947 film The Egg and I), and some are planned, such as The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The most profitable film franchises include Star Wars, James Bond, Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings.
Long-running film franchises were common in the studio era, when Hollywood studios had actors and directors under long-term contract. Examples include Andy Hardy, Ma and Pa Kettle, Bulldog Drummond, Superman, Tarzan, and Sherlock Holmes. The longest-running modern film franchises include James Bond, Godzilla, Friday the 13th, and Star Trek. In such cases, even lead actors are often replaced as they age, lose interest, or their characters are killed.
Media franchises tend to cross over from their original media to other forms. Literary franchises are often transported to film, such as Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, and other popular detectives, and Superman, Spider-Man, and other popular comic book superheroes. Television and film franchises are often expanded upon in novels, particularly those in the fantasy and science fiction genres, such as Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Star Wars. Similarly, fantasy and science fiction films and television series are frequently adapted into animated television series or video games, and vice versa.
Non-fiction literary franchises include the ...For Dummies and The Complete Idiot's Guide to... reference books. The Playboy franchise began with the pornographic magazine, and has since expanded to include a television channel, numerous direct to video films, books (including collections of non-pornographic short stories that had originally appeared in the magazine), and countless articles of clothing and other pieces of merchandising.
February 29, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word roland winters
thefreedictionary
Roland Winters (1904-1989) was an American actor who portrayed Charlie Chan in six films.
Born Roland Winternitz in Boston, Massachusetts on 22 December 1904, Winters was the son of Felix, a violinist and composer who was teaching at New England Conservatory. In his teens he began appearing in productions from local theater groups around Boston and made his Broadway debut in 1924 in The Firebrand. In 1931 he became the sports announcer for the Braves and Red Sox games on the radio station WNAC. He had a few uncredited film roles in the 1940s (including a brief appearance in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane in 1941), but continued to work in radio until 1947.
Sidney Toler, who had made twenty-two Charlie Chan films after taking over from Warner Oland, had died early in 1947. Monogram Pictures, which had bought the rights to Chan from 20th Century Fox in 1942, decided on Winters as his replacement in the title role of the series. At the age of 44 he was the youngest actor to tackle the role, and was actually some months younger than Keye Luke, who portrayed his "Number One Son" and assistant. Over a two year period he made six Chan films, starting with The Chinese Ring in 1947 and ending with Charlie Chan and the Sky Dragon (also known as The Sky Dragon) in 1949. In between four appearances as Chan in 1948, he also managed to squeeze in roles in three other films. The Monogram Charlie Chan films are regarded as lower quality than the higher-budget 20th Century Fox pictures in which Oland had starred, but Winter's performances are generally rated more highly than the those of Sidney Toler in the later Monogram films. Plans for further Charlie Chan films to be filmed in Europe were shelved after funding problems; Winters and Keye Luke were informed the series had been cancelled as they were preparing to leave for England to begin shooting Charlie Chan in London.
After the series finished, Winters continued to work in film and television up until 1982, including roles in Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, as Elvis' father in Blue Hawaii, and an appearance as the normally elusive McMann of McMann and Tate in Bewitched.
Winters died as the result of a stroke at the Actor's Fund Nursing Home in Englewood, New Jersey on 22 October 1989.
February 29, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word sidney toler
portrayed Charlie Chan on screen
thefreedictionary
Sidney Toler (April 28, 1874-February 12, 1947) was an actor and writer. Primarily Scottish ancestry, he was the second non-Asian actor to play the role of Charlie Chan. He was married to Viva Tattersall.
Following the death of Warner Oland, Twentieth Century-Fox began the search for a new Charlie Chan. Thirty-four actors were tested before the studio made their decision to choose Sidney Toler. Twentieth Century Fox announced their choice on October 18, 1938, and filming began less then a week later on Charlie Chan in Honolulu a film that had been originally scripted for Warner Oland and Keye Luke.
Sidney Toler was born in Warrensburg, Missouri on April 28, 1874. He showed a very early interest in the theater, acting in an amateur production of Tom Sawyer at the age of seven. Following his graduation from college, he became a professional actor in Kansas City, and then worked for a touring company during the late 1890s. For three decades, he acted on the stage in New York City, working with such future stars as Edward G. Robinson, John Barrymore, Katharine Hepburn, and Humphrey Bogart. In 1921, he co-wrote and directed Golden Days, a comedy starring Helen Hayes. Throughout the 1920s, Toler had an active role in co-writing or directing several other plays including The Exile (1923), Bye, Bye, Barbara (1924), and Ritzy (1930).
In 1929, Toler worked in his first Hollywood film, playing an Englishman in Madame X. For nearly ten years he worked in roles that supported well-known stars in films such as Blonde Venus (1932), starring Marlene Dietrich, The Phantom President (1932), with Claudette Colbert, and Trigger (1934), featuring Clark Gable.
Taking on the role of Charlie Chan following Warner Oland's death in 1938, Toler's portrayal of the Chinese detective in Honolulu was very well received. Besides Toler, there was another change in the series. Sen Yung, as Number Two Son Jimmy, replaced Number One Son Lee, who had been played by Keye Luke. Toler's Chan, rather than merely mimicking the character that Oland had portrayed, had a somewhat sharper edge that was well suited for the rapid changes of the times, both political and cultural. When needed, Charlie Chan now displayed overt sarcasm, usually toward his son Jimmy.
Through four years and eleven films, Toler played Charlie Chan for Twentieth Century-Fox. However, in 1942, following the completion of Castle in the Desert, Fox concluded the series. With war raging throughout the world, the overseas market that had made Charlie Chan films profitable for Fox was now unavailable.
Toler immediately worked to gain the screen rights to the Charlie Chan character from Eleanor Biggers Cole, the widow of Chan's creator, Earl Derr Biggers. He had hoped that Twentieth Century-Fox would distribute new Charlie Chan films if he could find someone willing to finance the new movies. This did not happen. Instead, Monogram Pictures, a lower-budget film studio, picked up the series.
With the release of Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944), the effects of a more limited budget were somewhat apparent. The quality of both writing and production were no match for those of Fox. However, even with their shortcomings, the Charlie Chan films were profitable and successful for Monogram Pictures. During this period, changes were again made. Jimmy was replaced by Benson Fong as Number Three Son Tommy, and Mantan Moreland played the ever-present and popular Birmingham Brown, who brought comedy relief - and Black audiences - to the series.
All told, Toler starred in eleven Charlie Chan films for Monogram Pictures. By the end of 1946, age and illness were affecting him. He was so ill during the filming of Dangerous Money (1946) and Dark Alibi (1946) that he could hardly walk, and it was through an heroic effort worthy of Charlie Chan himself that he was able to complete his last film, The Trap, in August of 1946.
Toler died on February 12, 1947, in Los Angeles, California from intestinal cancer.
February 29, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word warner oland
thefreedictionary
February 29, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word charlie chan actors
They're before my time, but I've seen some of them on TV. Several different actors portrayed Charlie Chan on screen.
best known are
Warner Oland
Sidney Toler
Roland Winters
more info at
encyclopedia.thefreedictionary
February 29, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word charlie chan
Charlie Chan is a fictional Chinese-American detective created by Earl Derr Biggers, reportedly in part under inspiration from the career of Chang Apana. Chan is the hero of a number of books and dozens of movies. At first a sergeant (but later promoted) in the Honolulu Police Department, he and his wife have fourteen children (the oldest of which is colloquially known as "Number One Son") and live in a house on Punchbowl Hill. He is a large man but moves gracefully.
February 29, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word charlie chan
http://www.leconcombre.com/biblio/filmographie/serials-13.html
http://etc.lawrence.com/galleries/shimomura7/2523_hires.html
February 29, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word star wars
star wars this is what you get when you click image search and then click on one of the pics.
I dragged the pic into this text field which I'm typing into right now. It turns in a URL.
Do we want to keep imagery out? Is this a bug? Am I stupid?
February 29, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word star wars
http://www.newsamericanow.com/profiles/star-wars
February 29, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the list words-i-heard-while-watching-tv
Thanks BrienneZ. The most useless use for TV I've found online has to be twitter
February 29, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word the bomb
Urban dictionary
the bomb
February 27, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word winklebottom
King of the Hill TV series
Winklebottom is a garden gnome that Peggy buys a yard sale. Of course, she thinks it's cool, but Hank can't handle the teasing he gets from his drinking buddies.
February 27, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the user jtfmulder
reesetee thanks! Do you second the no apologies policy and/or being rusty with using html?
February 27, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word the dude
Jeff Bridge's character in "The Big Lebowski".
the dude
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word dvr
I keep seeing a commercial with comedian Frank Caliendo as George W. Bush who likes To Recordify and Recordificate with DVR. He calls the DVR a "divver".
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the user jtfmulder
It's been a while since I've used some html. Sorry sbout the mistakes. I'm still getting used to making underlined URL links work properly for me on Wordie.
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the user mollusque
Pro Z: The translation workplace
Thank you very much in Hebrew is:
תודה רבה
Todah rabah
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word brain fart
http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/angel/season4/angel-412.htm
Angel Episode 4x12 (#78)
"Calvary" Transcript
GUNN
What kind of brain fart made that witch try and let Angelus out?
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word bfe
BFE
abbreviation for "Bum Fuck Egypt" or "Butt Fuck Egypt" -- in the middle of metaphorical nowhere -- an extremely isolated, inaccessible and inconvenient location.
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word re-ensoul somebody
Angel Episode 4x12 (#78)
"Calvary" Transcript
http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/angel/season4/angel-412.htm
CORDELIA
Angel's soul has been misplaced. I bet this sort of thing happens all the time. What do you have as a backup plan to re-ensoul somebody?
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the list it-has-a-name
filtrum is another that could be added to the list. It is one of the first things that I think of when someone says "It Has a Name??"
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word filtrum
philtrum
philtrum
(n) : the shallow groove running down the center of the outer surface of the upper lip
filtrum
(n) : alternative spelling of philtrum
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word betelgeuse
"Here lies Betelgeuse" is on his tombstone. In the movie, when Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis first meet him they get his business card and don't know how to pronounce his name.
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word sat word
SAT word
S.A.T. word
is a word that most people would not use in conversation, but one feels is necessary to know to improve vocabulary for the Scholastic Aptitude Test college entrance examinations.
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word csi
Crime Scene Investigator
Crime Scene Investigations
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word whoo hoo
exclamation of happiness
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word pick-up sticks
Not to be confused with the restaurant Pick up Stix
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word pick-up sticks
pick-up stick
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word my peops
I just found my peops used in printed literature.
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word my peops
http://books.google.com/books?id=ebXB6YbE4O0C&pg=PA89&dq=my+peops&ei=SrXCR8bHPJrutAOZ1PirCA&sig=l0io1U7z5hCVfouZtoTZu0Tbg4Q
Harlemworld: Doing Race and Class in Contemporary Black America
By John L. Jackson, John L.
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word peeps
Marshmallow PEEPS® taste like pure sugar to me.
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word peops
slang for "people"
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the user jtfmulder
Thanks for the comment. I haven't seen the word peops spelled out before. I assumed that it would be "peeps". I just did a quick Google search for both "my peops" and "my peeps". The results were inconclusive and didn't really point to any kind of scholarly web pages.
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word codex seraphinianus
The Codex Seraphinianus is a book written and illustrated by the Italian architect and industrial designer Luigi Serafini during thirty months, from 1976 to 1978.1 The book is approximately 360 pages long (depending on edition), and appears to be a visual encyclopedia of an unknown world, written in one of its languages, an incomprehensible (at least for us) alphabetic writing.
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word codex seraphinianus
codex seraphinianus
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Codex+Seraphinianus
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word bay area
refers to the vicinity of San Francisco
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word the dude
Jeff Bridge's character in "The Big Lebowski".
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word the matrix
A virtual world where humans sleep and interact with machines unaware that they are doing so.
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word the one
savior
Messianic character in "The Matrix"
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word the a.m.
the morning
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word the valley
refers to the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles.
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word necromonger
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necromonger
http://www.pitcherblacker.com/tcor/faq/
The Necromongers are another elder race that seek a higher level of existence, a form of death, in a place called the Underverse. They plan on taking everyone with them so they travel from planet to planet, decimating the populations in the name of their religion. They are led by the Lord Marshal, who captures Riddick and learns that the two of them share both a past and a future.
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word bullshit
my favorite use of this is "total bullshit"
February 25, 2008
jtfmulder commented on the word betelgeuse
BETELGEUSE is the correct spelling for the movie and cartoon character, Beetlejuice.
February 25, 2008