(part 4)
26. G.I. Joe and Barbie’s voiceboxes get switched.
A group of performance artists switched the voiceboxes of about 300 G.I. Joe and Teen Talk Barbie. This was later referenced in the Simpsons episode Lisa Vs. Malibu Stacy:
Poor Celeste.
27. Bill’s Half Brother
Leon died in 2009 at the age of 70. He and Bill met a few times! 1
28. The first dreidel in space
Spun by Jeff Hoffman.
29. Lawrence comes out in For Better or for Worse (April 10th)
Lawrence, Michael’s friend in the strip came out of the closet in the spring of 1993. Of course, people got mad and demanded the strip be pulled from their local papers:
In the next few weeks, Lawrence, who is 17, will also reveal his sexual orientation to his mother and stepfather. Reader beware; the next two sentences give away plot details. His mother will insist Lawrence is mistaken, and his stepfather will throw Lawrence out of the house. He will spend a lonely night in a doughnut shop until Mike locates him and brings him home for a reconciliation with his famiy.
The plot line has already proved too rich for some tastes. Universal Press Syndicate editorial director Lee Salem says about 20 of some 1,400 newspapers subscribing to “For Better or For Worse” have asked for backup material that can be substituted for the Lawrence strips, and eight have canceled the comic outright.
Lynn Johnston, the Canadian cartoonist who writes and draws the 14-year-old strip, says she knew she was entering a sensitive area, but she’s a little surprised by the scope of the negative reaction.
“What I wrote was kind; it was caring,” she says. “It explored both sides of the issue.”
[…]
Thomas Mitchell did. He’s the editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, one of the newspapers pulling the Lawrence panels in favor of backup material.
“We had a pretty little heated argument among ourselves,” he says.
Mitchell finally decided parents shouldn’t abruptly find themselves explaining the material to their children over the morning Rice Krispies.
“It’s the comics page, man. Give me a break,” he says. “It’s an interesting topic. Teenage homosexuality: How do you handle it; how do you talk about it?”
Mitchell says he wouldn’t object to a feature story on the subject, possibly illustrated by strips from “For Better or For Worse.”
Bob Hansen of Enfield probably wishes he was getting Mitchell’s newspaper. Hansen is a Courant subscriber who called the paper Monday to complain about the tack Johnston’s strip had taken.
“I’m very upset about it,” he says. “Comics, in the first place, comics are for fun.”
Hansen says he doesn’t object to homosexuals, but he objects to having homsexuality pushed at people who aren’t interested in hearing about it. In particular, he disliked Lawrence’s remark, in Monday’s episode, insisting he isn’t confused about his orientation: “Everybody else is confused.” 2
For the record, I obsessed over For Better or for Worse almost as much as I did Funky Winkerbean. Good to know Lawrence had a good ending as the strip wound to the end in the Summer of 2008.
30. Dana Carvey almost becomes the host of Late Night.
He said no when offered. 3
(eBay user 3d-ology)
31. Addy becomes an American Girl
There was some controversy among the company whether Addy would be “too real” for kids:
Indeed, the story of Addy may be too heavy for the frail shoulders of a doll, and it clearly represents a dramatic shift in the tone of these children’s books. While the other dolls face such traumas as wild bears, sailing during a storm or even choosing between loyalty to the crown of England or the patriots of the new Colonies, none can really compare with watching your brother being whipped by a cruel overseer because he “done run off.” In “Meet Addy,” the first of her series, she escapes from slavery with her mother, after they are forcibly separated from the rest of the family.
Pittsburgh novelist Connie Porter, who was hired to write the Addy books, is aware of the criticism. “Some people don’t want to see a character in slavery — that’s ridiculous,” she said. “You can run the risk of being so politically correct that you can lose whole periods of history. Children are more ready to talk about these things than some adults are.”
Porter, who met twice with the advisory board to discuss story content and the use of dialect, said that she has not trivialized slavery in any way. If anything, she has made it more real to a modern child than it might have been before, she said. “I tried to show how a black child would be treated during the day at the age of 9,” she said. “That she had a job like a grown person. Addy works all day worming tobacco plants. She also serves occasionally for the master, who treats her with indifference. At one point they treat her badly. She’s a piece of property.” 4
32. Krusty gets canceled, but marge doesn’t say anything. (May 13th)
Y’all Ever notice that Marge has no lines in the classic Simpsons episode “Krusty Gets Canceled”? She’s there, but no lines. According to the DVD commentaries, Al Jean said that Julie Kavner felt uncomfortable being in an episode with so many celebrity guests, describing it as “tasteless”. I guess she changed her mind through the years.
33. Lorena Bobbit copycats
In a four-month period, at least three men besides John Bobbitt had their genitals trashed by angry women. In April, a 29-year-old woman in Milwaukee partially severed her boyfriend’s penis after he announced that he wanted to break up, reported the Milwaukee Journal. In Waynesville, N.C., in July, Cynthia Mason Gillett, 28, was charged with setting her husband’s genitals on fire while he slept after an argument, reported the Charlotte Observer. In April, Jose Dogelio, 31, was shot in the penis by a woman he was “flashing” on a street in Dasmarinas, Philippines, according to the Manila newspaper, People’s Journal. 5
Cynthia was put on probation in January of 1994 because her husband refused to testify against her. She doused his genitals in nail polish and caught them on fire! 6 I could not find Jose’s condition.
When I was a kid and I’d see pieces about Lorena and John Bobbit on the news, I pictured Lorena cutting John’s penis off with scissors.
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- Barker, Jennifer, and Medianews Group. “Former Paradise Resident Ritzenthaler, Clinton’s Half-Brother, Dies.” Chico Enterprise-Record (blog), January 14, 2009. https://www.chicoer.com/20090114/former-paradise-resident-ritzenthaler-clintons-half-brother-dies/. https://archive.is/YqjO4 .
- Hartford Courant. “COMIC TACKLES CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE AS CHARACTER ANNOUNCES HE IS GAY.” March 31, 1993. https://www.courant.com/1993/03/31/comic-tackles-controversial-issue-as-character-announces-he-is-gay/. https://archive.is/dZIGX
- Carter, Bill. 1995. The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno, and the Network Battle for the Night. New York: Hyperion. 225-226.
- Rosenfeld, Megan. “WHOLESOME BABES IN TOYLAND.” Washington Post, May 24, 1993. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/05/24/wholesome-babes-in-toyland/b4ed92ca-1571-4ec9-9290-4dfb4ded0b7b/.
- Shepherd, Chuck. “1993: THE YEAR OF THE WEIRD.” Washington Post, December 26, 1993. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1993/12/26/1993-the-year-of-the-weird/cca1ec6a-5dc9-4be6-9087-e26abe3c657f/.
- Tulsa World . “Woman Who Burned Mate Gets Probation.” January 22, 1994. https://1ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Ftulsaworld.com%2Fnews%2Fwoman-who-burned-mate-gets-probation%2Farticle_910a1d92-ff60-57f9-af48-af57d99ad8e2.html
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