document_title: Army Service Uniform

question_text: when do you get your dress blues in the army

text: Army Service Uniform

text: History[edit]

text: Timeline of changes[edit]

text: 1774: Blue Continental Army coat, with state facing colors, and white waistcoat and breeches or overalls. (Historical Note/Ref: The origin of "blue" as the primary uniform color is earlier during the Colonial period of the Continental Association or First Continental Congress which met in Philadelphia, PA and adjourned on Oct 26, 1774.) George Washington was the appointed Presiding Officer.

text: While Washington was in Philadelphia, one hundred neighbors in Fairfax County (VA), under the tutelage of George Mason, had organized themselves into a voluntary militia—probably the first in the colony—electing Washington their commander. Borrowing the colors of the English Whig party, the Fairfax Independent Company wore blue uniforms with buff facings and white stockings.[1]

text: Washington used Thomas Webb’s A Military Treatise on the Appointments of the Army as a guide for outfitting this particular unit. Washington would soon accept the additional field command of another four independent companies: in Prince William, Fauquier, Richmond, and Spotsylvania Counties.[2]

text:
1782: Red facings only with branch of service white (infantry) or yellow (artillery) metal buttons.
1810: French uniform coat with cut-in skirt fastened in front; sleeved roundabout jacket for fatigue and field service.
1813: Uniform coat devoid of buttonhole lace and facing colors.
1821: Congressional confirmation of army wear of national blue; practical gray wool pantaloons for the winter mud, a tradition of contrasting shades.
1829: Undress frock (full round skirt) coat in place of officer's civilian clothes.
1832: Branch of service cap insignia, gold or silver officer grade insignia on epaulettes and sky-blue trousers for all but staff and generals.
1835: Shoulder straps, used to hold fringed epaulettes, with undress, officer grade.
1851: French frock (full skirt) coat only uniform, trimmed in system of branch of service colors.
1854: New waist-length uniform jacket for mounted troops
1872: Blouse for garrison and field, uniform coat for dress, with epaulettes for generals.
1881: Dark blue flannel overshirt often in place of blouse on field service.
1885: Sky-blue kersey trousers, aniline dye richer shade than original vegetable dye.
1895: Officer's undress sack coat, with black trim; branch of service insignia and national cypher "U.S." on collar, with national eagle on cap.
1902: Olive drab wool and khaki cotton service uniforms introduced; blue retained only for dress, full dress, mess dress, and special evening dress, trimmed with branch of service color. New patterns of blue full dress and dress uniforms adopted for both officers and enlisted men [3] Leather color changed from black to russet. The M1902 visored cap is adopted.[4]
1907 and 1912: Minor changes prescribed for 1902 model blue dress and full dress uniforms.[5]
1911: Wool felt M1911 Campaign Hat adopted. Hat cords were in Branch colors for enlisted men, a gold metallic thread and black cord braid for Subaltern and Field Officers, and woven of gold metallic thread for General Officers.
1917: Wearing of blue dress, full dress and mess dress uniforms suspended for the duration of the war. Warrant Officers were authorized a hat cord of silver metallic thread and black cord braid for wear with the M1911 Campaign Hat. The side-folding cloth Overseas Cap was unofficially adopted by AEF personnel in a variety of styles influenced by similar Allied patterns.
1921: The M1911 Campaign Hat was redesigned.
1928: Return of pre-war blue dress uniforms with new visor cap, optional at expense of wearer.[6]
1938: Officer's blue roll-collar coat adopted, with branch of service-color trim and dress belt (from full dress coat).
1939: The side-folding Overseas Cap is universally adopted as the Garrison Cap.
1940: No blue uniform required during emergency (end of saber).
1941: The M1911 Campaign Hat is declared Limited Standard.
1947: President Harry S. Truman note on lack of dress uniform and return of pre-war pattern; evening dress uniform cuff with single gold lace and insignia of grade.
1953: Post-war officer and EM pattern with patch pockets; no traditional branch of service color trim on EM uniform and officers' trousers stripes.
1956: Distinctive uniform for bands and honor guards. Leather color changed from russet to black.
1957: Women's army blue uniform same cut as 1951 Taupe-121 uniform.
1959: Army blue uniforms for year-round wear.
1962: Women's army blue same as army green uniform, with new service hat.
1963: Mandatory possession of officer's army blue uniform.
1972: Officers' mess jacket cuff ornamentation simplified to resemble that of 1947 evening dress (grade insignia replaced branch insignia; single strand of gold lace replaced multiple ones which previously showed grade).
2008: the new blue army service uniform (ASU) is introduced for optional wear by soldiers.[7]
2010: blue ASU issued to all soldiers, beginning in autumn.
2015: Army green class A uniform officially retired; blue ASU worn army-wide after October 1.

text: Details[edit]

text: In the early days of the U.S. Army, the uniform worn in combat was essentially the same as that worn for everyday duties. This was the common practice with most armies of the time. This changed in modern times, as field uniforms were developed which were more suited for battle.

text: During the Civil War era, army uniforms were relatively simple. Typically, the same uniform served as a garrison uniform and as a combat uniform. Combat soldiers in the Civil War wore a standard dark blue coat, just like personnel in garrisons or in army offices and headquarters. In the first half of the war, many states supplied their regiments with uniforms, resulting in distinctive jackets and buttons. Rank was indicated by a shoulder strap for officers, and chevrons on the sleeves for non-commissioned officers. Branch or specialty could be indicated by the color of the enlisted badge of rank, or the background color for officers' shoulder straps. Uniform standards were relaxed during the war years, especially on campaign, and men often wore a variety of hats in the field.[8]

text: The 1899 Army Uniform Regulations provided for a cotton khaki uniform for field service, drawing on the experience of the Spanish–American War when both blue and drab clothing had been worn.[9] From 1902 to 1917, the army had two uniforms: a service uniform of wool olive drab Melton cloth for use by soldiers in the field, and a blue dress uniform used for ceremonies and off-post wear by enlisted men.[10]

text: Lieutenant General Edmund B. Gregory, the Quartermaster General, looking back in 1946, pointed out that World War I uniforms had subtly changed from a comfortable loose-fitting four pocket field garment to a tight-fitting version suitable only for garrison wear. At the outbreak of World War II, the army had to develop new loose-fitting patterns which the men could live in, as well as muster on the parade ground. Gregory noted that this gradual change to a tight-fitting uniform in peacetime has been characteristic of the history of uniforms in all armies.[10]

text: Around 1940, soldiers began to use special uniforms designed for combat or field operations, with numerous special equipment and packs. The M-1941 Field Jacket was one of the first clothing items which was approved specifically for use in the field, and which was not meant to be part of a standard service uniform.[11]

text: After this, service uniforms started to become more elaborate, as they were not needed to be useful in combat, and could take on a unique appearance, with new features and embellishments. Units began to display their own special patches, and badges were added for various specialties.

text: Among the earliest unit patches was for the 81st Infantry Division. This unit trained at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. They created patches showing a wildcat, so that they could identify each other quickly in combat. Some officers questioned this, but General John Pershing decided it was a good idea, so the army started to implement it for all units.[12]

text: The first commendation ever used by the U.S. military was the original Purple Heart, designed personally by George Washington. It was originally a medal for valor, and at the time was the only one issued by the U.S. Army. It fell out of use after the American Revolution but was later revived and became the modern commendation for wounds in battle, which is how it is used today. World War I was the first time that the army began to award a variety of medals and decorations, except for the Medal of Honor, which was first awarded during the Civil War.

text: The Combat Infantryman Badge and the Expert Infantryman Badge were created in 1943 by the United States Secretary of War. The combat infantryman badge was originally awarded for valor in combat.[citation needed] In 1947, every soldier who earned it was given a Bronze Star, and since then, it is awarded for having participated in ground combat.[13]

text: Current dress/service uniform[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: History[edit]

text: The Army currently uses the blue Army Service Uniform. According to Army Regulation 670-1: Wear and Appearance of Army Uniforms and Insignia, Army White, and Army Blue uniforms are considered Dress Uniforms. The Army Service Uniform seeks to combine these distinctions through wear stipulations.[14] Possession and use of the blue ASU is now mandatory for all soldiers as of October 1, 2015,[15] when the green class A was retired. As of fall 2010, enlisted soldiers receive the blue service uniform as part of their basic clothing bag issue when they enter the army during initial entry training. The army further provides active-duty enlisted soldiers an annual clothing allowance to maintain proper fit and appearance of their basic clothing bag issue items. The army includes a series of stipends in this annual clothing allowance towards the replacement of the green service uniform and all basic clothing bag items.

text: Commissioned officers are given a one-time stipend when commissioned to purchase their required uniform items. Officers then maintain proper fit and appearance of their uniform items throughout their career. The army requires officers to purchase and maintain only the blue service uniform.

text: To streamline the number of uniforms soldiers purchase and maintain throughout their careers, the army has phased out the green and white service uniforms and retained the blue service uniform as the army service uniform.

text: The ASU was announced in 2006 by then-Army Chief of Staff General Peter Schoomaker, and will serve as the U.S. Army's dress, garrison, and ceremonial uniform. Since the new army uniform is now standard, the only green uniform remaining in the U.S. military are the olive green Marine Corps service uniform.

text: The ASU made its "debut" at the 2007 State of the Union Address, when General Schoomaker wore his army blue uniform.

text: The ASU used the preexisting "army blue" uniform as a model. Accordingly, in terms of color the ASU resembles the campaign uniforms worn by soldiers during the Mexican–American War, American Civil War, Indian Wars, and the Spanish–American War prior to the introduction of khaki uniforms in the 1890s (phased out in 1985) and olive drab uniforms in 1902 (phased out and replaced with "army green" between 1955 and 1957), making the blue uniform a dress uniform. Dress uniforms of dark-blue tunics and light-blue trousers were worn by all ranks until 1917 and reintroduced in a modernized form (with open collar and tie) for officers and warrant officers in 1937.

text: Description[edit]

text: The ASU includes a midnight blue coat and low waist trousers for male soldiers; and a midnight blue coat, slacks and skirt for female soldiers. The fabric for the ASU is heavier and more wrinkle resistant than previously manufactured uniforms and will consist of 55% wool and 45% polyester material. The ASU coat has a tailored, athletic cut to improve uniform fit and appearance. The ASU includes an improved heavier and wrinkle resistant short and long-sleeved white shirt with permanent military creases and shoulder loops. The JROTC version replaces the white shirt with the prototype grey shirt and gold braid is not worn on the blue trousers or on the sleeves of the class A coat. Compared to the Army's previous uniforms, the ASU does not include a garrison cap; soldiers will continue to wear the Army's berets.

text: The army encourages soldiers and leaders who own the current army blue uniform to wear it, when appropriate, as their dress, class "A", or class "B" Uniform. The fielding of the new uniform policy establishes a class "B" uniform category for the current army blue uniform as part of its bridging strategy. The class "B" uniform category defines those ASU items worn without the service coat.[16]

text: Dress ASU[edit]

text: The dress blue ASU for males includes the blue coat and trousers and a long-sleeved white shirt with black tie. The dress blue ASU for females includes the blue coat, skirt, and a long-sleeved white shirt with black neck tab. Currently, females in army bands, honor guards, and female chaplains are authorized to wear army blue slacks in the performance of their duties. The black beret and service cap are authorized for wear with this uniform. Combat boots and organizational items, such as brassards, military police accessories and distinctive unit insignia are not worn. All other accessories and insignia authorized for wear with the class "A" service uniform are authorized for wear on the dress blue ASU.[citation needed]

text: Evening social events[edit]

text: When the dress blue ASU is worn for social events in the evening (i.e. after retreat), men may wear a black bow tie rather than a black four-in-hand necktie, and commanders may direct that headgear is not required.[citation needed]

text: ALARACT 202/2008 specifies that the "dress blue ASU" for men includes a "black bowtie." It makes no mention of the black four-in-hand necktie in connection with the "dress blue ASU." Since, according to paragraph 10 of the same ALARACT and paragraph 27-19a of AR 670-1, the bow tie is worn only after retreat, this text suggests that the "dress blue ASU" is not conceived of as a uniform order for the daytime, that the "dress blue ASU" for males is not an all-hours uniform including an evening variant with bow tie, and that the "class A ASU" is the highest order of dress for daytime wear.

text: Class "A" ASU[edit]

text: The class "A" ASU includes the army blue coat and trousers/skirt/slacks, a short or long sleeved white shirt and four-in-hand necktie (male)/neck tab (female) (for accessories and other items authorized for wear on the class "A" ASU, see ASU accessory items authorized for wear).

text: This uniform also exists in the army JROTC program in a modified version. The main difference is that the AJROTC version mostly resembles the original trial version of the army service uniform which consisted of a grey, long or short sleeved shirt and the blue trousers without the gold stripe sewn on. The blue class A coat is exactly the same as the current issue coat except that the gold edge trimming is not worn on the sleeves of the blue coat, the main blue shade of army blue 450 is the same as on the current army service uniform and the official headgear authorized is the grey beret with a black center flash with gold trim. The official designation of the uniform is the "AJROTC cadet service uniform," or The ASU as well. The new cadet army service uniform will completely replace the cadet army green uniform by October 2015. Most AJROTC units possessed the new blue uniform by October 2014.

text: Class "B" ASU[edit]

text: The class "B" ASU includes the army blue trousers/skirt/slacks, a short or long sleeve white shirt. Soldiers will wear the four-in-hand necktie with the long sleeve white shirt when it is worn without the class "A" coat. Until the new ASU items are available, soldiers who have the low waist trousers with belt loops, or slacks, have the option of wearing a commercial short sleeve white shirt with shoulder loops in the open collar configuration or with a four-in-hand necktie (black neck tab for female soldiers). Soldiers have the option of wearing a commercial long sleeve white shirt with shoulder loops and a four-in-hand necktie (black neck tab for female soldiers). Soldiers who have the current commercial white shirt without shoulder loops must wear as appropriate, the black wind breaker, black pullover or black cardigan sweaters with this uniform.[citation needed]

text: Soldiers who have the high waist blue trousers worn with suspenders (designed to wear with the blue mess uniform) may wear these trousers with the current ASU during this transition period. These high waist trousers must be worn with the service coat, black wind breaker, black pullover or black cardigan sweaters.[citation needed]

text: Components[edit]

text: The ASU consists of the following items:

text:
Coat, army blue shade 450
Trousers, army blue shade 451, low Waist With Belt Loops (male soldiers)
Slacks, Low Waist (female soldiers)
Skirt (female soldiers)

text: Accessory items[edit]

text:
Belt and buckle[17]
Black combat boots (optional for wear with class "A" and class "B" uniforms for soldiers authorized to wear the tan, green, or maroon berets, those assigned to air assault coded positions, and military police soldiers performing MP duties.)[18]
Black bow tie (worn after retreat)[19]
Buttons[20]
Black cape (officer only)[21]
Blue cape (officer only)[22]
Chaplain's apparel[23]
Gold cuff links and studs[24]
Black all-weather coat[25]
Black leather dress gloves (worn with black all weather coat or black wind breaker)[26]
White dress gloves[27]
Black handbag[28]
Black shoulder bag[29]
Black clutch[30]
Drill sergeant hat (authorized for wear with class "A" and class "B" uniforms)[31]
Judge's apparel[32]
Military police accessories (not authorized with the formal class "A" ASU)
Black necktie (worn on duty)[33]
Neck tabs[34]
Black scarf (only with black all weather coat or black windbreaker)[35]
White long-sleeve shirt[36]
White short-sleeve shirt[37]
Black shoes[38]
Black pumps[39]
Black cushioned socks (worn with boots only)[40]
Black dress socks (worn with trousers/slacks)[41]
Sheer stockings[42]
Black pullover sweater[43]
Black unisex Cardigan[44]
White undershirt[45]
Black umbrella (female soldiers may carry and use an umbrella, only during inclement weather, when wearing the dress blue ASU. Umbrellas are not authorized in formations or when wearing field or utility uniforms)
Black windbreaker (only with class "B" uniform)[46]

text: Insignia, awards, badges and accoutrements[edit]

text:
Service aiguillettes (officers only) (not authorized on the class "B" ASU)[47]
Airborne background trimming[48]
Branch of service scarf (not authorized on the enlisted formal class "A" service uniform)[49]
Branch insignia (not authorized on the class "B" ASU)[50]
Brassards (not authorized on the dress blue ASU)[51]
Combat service identification badge (CSIB). Worn when available in place of the Green uniforms shoulder sleeve insignia. The CSIB will be worn centered on the wearer's right breast pocket of the ASU coat for male soldiers; female soldiers wear the CSIB on the right side parallel to the waistline on the ASU coat. The CSIB is ranked fifth in order of precedence below the Presidential, Vice-Presidential, Secretary of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff Identification Badges. The CSIB can also be worn on the shirt when wearing the class "B" versions of the ASU[52]
Decorations and ribbons[53]
Distinctive items authorized for infantrymen[54]
Distinctive unit insignia (enlisted only) (authorized for wear on the class "A" and class "B" uniforms only)[55]
Foreign badges[56]
Fourragere lanyards[57]
Gold Star lapel pin[58]
Headgear insignia[59]
Rank insignia[60]
Officer candidate and warrant officer candidate insignia.[61]
Nameplate[62]
Organizational flash[63]
Overseas service bars (optional)[64]
Distinctive regimental insignia (optional)[65]
Service stripes (enlisted personnel only)[66]
Unit awards[67]
U.S. badges (identification, marksmanship, combat and special skill)[68]
U.S. Insignia (not authorized on the class "B" ASU)[69]

text: Headgear[edit]

text:
Black, maroon, tan, or green beret. (Compared to the former green uniform, a garrison cap is no longer issued.)
Service cap (male/female; corporals and above)
Stetson (U.S. Cavalry)

text: Miscellaneous[edit]

text:
Officer and non-commissioned officers will wear trousers with a gold braid sewn on the outside of seam of each trouser leg of the new blue ASU. The braid will be sewn from the bottom of the waistband to the bottom of the trouser leg (soldiers assigned to the Old Guard are authorized the gold braid regardless of grade).
On the new ASU, service stripes are authorized for wear on the left sleeve for enlisted soldiers and Overseas Service Bars on the right sleeve for both officers and enlisted soldiers. The new service stripes and Overseas Service Bars are similar in size to the ones currently worn on the army green uniform. The new service stripes and Overseas Service Bars will be gold in color and trimmed in blue to match the ASU. During the transition to the new ASU, the traditional larger service stripes on the optional white and blue (short jacket) mess dress uniform will be maintained.
The current (old) blue uniform ( with large service stripes) remains authorized for wear until the final quarter of Fiscal Year 2014.
Soldiers who have the current (old) blue uniform are not required to remove the existing large service stripes.
Privates through specialists who now own the current blue trousers are not required to remove the existing gold braid on their trouser legs.
Until the last quarter of Fiscal Year 2014 official photos can be in either the army green service uniform or the blue ASU.
The wear out date for the army green service uniform with accessories is the 4th quarter of Fiscal Year 2015.
All new insignia worn on the ASU will be designed and developed by the United States Army Institute of Heraldry
The grey shirt initially developed for the army service uniform is only authorized for army JROTC units.
The gold braid is only authorized for the active army and is not authorized for wear on the JROTC cadet ASU. I.e. the trousers or the coat sleeves.


document_title: 1939 in television

question_text: what happened at the 1939 worlds fair in regards to television

root

text: 1939 in television

text: Events[edit]

text:
March 4 – The BBC Television Service broadcasts one of the first television plays specially written for the medium, Condemned To Be Shot by R. E. J. Brooke, live from its London studios at Alexandra Palace. The production is notable for the use of a camera as the first-person perspective of the play's unseen main character.
March 27 – The BBC broadcasts the entirety of Magyar Melody live from His Majesty's Theatre in London. The 175-minute broadcast is the first showing of a full-length musical by television.
April

Television demonstrations are held at the 1939 New York World's Fair on Long Island and the Golden Gate International Exhibition in San Francisco.
RCA, General Electric, Dumont and others begin selling television sets to the public in the New York City area. Screen sizes typically range from 5 to 12 inches, and Dumont features 14-inch and 16-inch models. Prices start at $200 and go as high as $1000.

April 30 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, appearing at the opening ceremony of the 1939 New York World's Fair, becomes the first President of the United States to give a speech that is broadcast by television.
May 17 – The first baseball game (Princeton University vs. Columbia University) is broadcast by television, from Baker Field in New York. Bill Stern is the announcer.
May 19 – The Walt Disney cartoon Donald's Cousin Gus airs on NBC's experimental station W2XBS (later WNBC-TV) in New York. This marks the first movie cartoon to be televised in the United States.
June 1 – The first heavyweight boxing match is televised, Max Baer vs Lou Nova, from Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.
August 26

The first Major League Baseball game is telecast, a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, in Brooklyn, New York.
Poland broadcasts a feature film for the first time—Barbara Radziwiłłówna (1936)—using the experimental transmitter mounted atop the Prudential building in Warsaw.

August 31 – 18,999 television sets have been sold in England before manufacture stops due to World War II.
September 1 – The anticipated outbreak of World War II brings television broadcasting at the BBC in Britain to an end at 12:35 p.m. after the broadcast of a Mickey Mouse cartoon, Mickey's Gala Premier, various sound and vision test signals, and announcements by presenter Fay Cavendish. It is feared that the VHF waves of television would act as a homing signal for guiding enemy bombers to central London: in any case, the engineers of the television service would be needed for the war effort, particularly for development of radar. The BBC would resume its broadcasting, with the same Mickey Mouse cartoon, after the war in 1946.
September 30 – The first televised college football game, Fordham University vs Waynesburg College, at Randall's Island, New York.
October 22 – The first National Football League game is televised. The Brooklyn Dodgers vs. Philadelphia Eagles at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.
November 8 – CBS television station W2XAB resumes test transmission with an all-electronic system broadcast from the top of the Chrysler Building in New York City.[1]

tag: ul

text: Television shows[edit]

text:
Series
Debut
Ended

Picture Page (UK)
October 8, 1936
1939

1946
1952

Starlight (UK)
November 3, 1936
1939

1946
1949

The Disorderly Room (UK)
April 17, 1937
August 20, 1939

For The Children (UK)
April 24, 1937
1939

July 7, 1946
1950

Sports Review (UK)
April 30, 1937
1939

Telecrime (UK)
August 10, 1938
July 25, 1939

October 22, 1946
November 25, 1946

tag: table

text: Programs ending during 1939[edit]

text:
Date
Show
Debut

August 20
The Disorderly Room (UK)
1937

Unknown
Sports Review (UK)

text: Births[edit]

text:
January 17 – Maury Povich, talk show host
January 22 – Jeff Smith, American chef and presenter (died 2004)
February 6 – Mike Farrell, actor, M*A*S*H
April 5 - Roger Davis, actor, Alias Smith and Jones
April 9 - Michael Learned, actress, The Waltons
April 11 – Louise Lasser, actress, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
April 13 - Paul Sorvino, actor, Law & Order
April 19 - Ellen Weston, actress, S.W.A.T.
April 23

David Birney, actor, Bridget Loves Bernie
Lee Majors, actor, The Big Valley, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Fall Guy

April 27 – Judy Carne, actress, comedian, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In (died 2015)
May 1

Mark Slade, actor, The High Chaparral
Max Robinson, journalist (died 1988)

May 25 – Dixie Carter, actress, Designing Women (died 2010)
June 1 – Cleavon Little, actor (died 1992)
June 9 – Dick Vitale, sportscaster
July 4 - Ed Bernard, actor, Police Woman, The White Shadow, Hardcastle and McCormick
July 10 - Lawrence Pressman, actor, Doogie Howser, M.D.
July 31 – Susan Flannery, actress, Days of Our Lives
August 21 - Clarence Williams III, actor, The Mod Squad
August 22 – Valerie Harper, actress, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda
August 29 – Joel Schumacher, film director
August 30 - William G. Schilling, actor, Head of the Class
September 1 – Lily Tomlin, actress, comedian, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In
September 18 - Fred Willard, actor, comedian
September 29 – Larry Linville, actor, M*A*S*H (died 2000)
October 30 - Danny Goldman, actor, The Smurfs
October 31 - Ron Rifkin, actor, Alias, Brothers & Sisters
November 11 - Denise Alexander, actress, General Hospital
November 15 - Yaphet Kotto, actor, Homicide: Life on the Street
November 20 - Dick Smothers, actor, comedian, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
December 27 – John Amos, actor, Good Times


document_title: Once More, with Feeling (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

question_text: when does buffy tell her friends she was in heaven

text: Background[edit]

text: Throughout the series Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), in her role as the Vampire Slayer, is assisted by her close friends, who refer to themselves as the "Scooby Gang". These include Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon), a young man without particular strengths or talents, but devoted to Buffy and her calling, and Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan), a young woman who has grown from a shy but gifted student into a strong woman and powerful user of magic. They are mentored by Buffy's "Watcher", Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), a paternal figure since the first season, when Buffy moved to Sunnydale after her parents' divorce. Xander is engaged to Anya Jenkins (Emma Caulfield), a former vengeance demon who has become human. They have struggled with disclosing their engagement to the rest of the group and individually doubt their impending marriage.[2]

tag: p

text: Buffy died at the end of the fifth season ("The Gift"), sacrificing herself in place of her younger sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) in order to save the world. In the first episode of the sixth season, Willow, believing Buffy to be in Hell, used magic to bring her back from the grave. Buffy was in fact at peace, in what she thinks was heaven, but she has kept this a secret from her friends. Since her resurrection, Buffy has been lost and without inspiration to perform her duties as a Slayer. Willow is romantically involved with Tara Maclay (Amber Benson), a powerful but ethical witch. Tara has previously expressed concern at Willow's use of her emergent magical powers for trivial or personal matters. In the preceding episode ("All the Way"), Willow cast a spell to make Tara forget an argument about her abuse of magic. In the same episode, Dawn, who has been stealing from stores, including Anya's magic shop, lies to Buffy and goes on a clandestine and almost deadly date. Left to take care of Dawn after the death of their mother Joyce Summers (Kristine Sutherland) in the fifth season ("The Body"), Buffy has come to depend more heavily on Giles. Following Dawn's date, Buffy asks Giles to shoulder responsibility for disciplining her, much to his discomfort.[2][4]

text: Buffy's former nemesis is Spike (James Marsters), a vampire. In the fourth season The Initiative, a secret military organization whose mission is to evaluate and eliminate demonic beings, rendered Spike harmless by implanting a microchip in his head that causes him intense pain when he attacks humans. However, the chip does not affect him when he harms demons and he now often fights on Buffy's side, after at first fighting just for the pleasure of brawling. His motivations changed when, in the fifth season, Spike realized he had fallen in love with Buffy. She initially rejected him, but after and just before her death they had begun to form a friendship of sorts. She has been confiding in him; prior to this episode, he is the only one to whom Buffy has revealed that she was in heaven.[2]

text: Throughout Buffy the Vampire Slayer, music serves as a narrative tool, integral to character development and action. The mood is set by music, characters discuss it, and writers use it to emphasize differences between generations. In an essay on the use of music in the series, Jacqueline Bach writes that in conjunction with the sixth season themes of growing up, "Once More, with Feeling" gives music a central role instead of keeping it in the background.[5]

text: Plot[edit]

text: When Buffy is on patrol, she laments in song about how uninspired her life has become ("Going Through the Motions"). The next morning at the Magic Box, the gang reveal that they also sang that evening. Led by Giles, the gang theorizes about the cause of the singing; they sense no immediate danger but agreeing that by working together they can overcome anything ("I've Got a Theory/Bunnies/If We're Together"). Buffy learns that the whole town is affected when she looks outside the shop to see a large group (led by series writer and producer David Fury) singing and dancing about how a dry-cleaning service got their stains out ("The Mustard").

text: Tara and Willow leave to "research" at home, but dally along the way while Tara muses about how much Willow has improved her life ("Under Your Spell"). The next morning, Xander and Anya perform a duet about their secret annoyances with each other and their respective doubts about their impending marriage ("I'll Never Tell"). They realize that the songs are bringing out hidden secrets, and later insist to Giles that something evil is to blame. As they argue, they walk past a woman (series writer and producer Marti Noxon) protesting a parking ticket ("The Parking Ticket"). That evening, Buffy visits Spike, who angrily tells Buffy to leave him alone if she will not love him ("Rest in Peace").

text: Dawn tells Tara she is glad that Tara and Willow have made up after their argument. Since Tara has no recollection of an argument, she suspects that Willow has used magic to alter her memory. She goes to the Magic Box to consult a book, leaving Dawn alone. Dawn starts to bemoan that no one seems to notice her ("Dawn's Lament"), but is soon seized by minions of Sweet (Hinton Battle), a zoot suit-wearing, tap-dancing, singing demon. They take Dawn to The Bronze, where her attempt to escape transforms into an interpretive dance with the minions ("Dawn's Ballet") before she meets Sweet. He tells Dawn that he has come to Sunnydale in response to her "invocation", and he will take her to his dimension to make her his bride ("What You Feel") when his visit is complete.

text: At the Magic Box, Giles recognizes that he must stand aside if Buffy is to face her responsibilities in caring for Dawn instead of relying on him ("Standing") and Tara finds a picture of the forget-me-not flower Willow used to cast a spell on her in a book of magic. Giles and Tara separately resolve to leave the people they love, respectively Buffy and Willow — Giles wants to leave Buffy for her own good, while Tara wants to leave Willow because she has become horrified by Willow’s magical manipulation of their relationship ("Under Your Spell / Standing—Reprise"). Captured by Spike outside the store, one of Sweet’s minions conveys a challenge from Sweet for Buffy to rescue Dawn from The Bronze. Giles forbids the gang to assist Buffy, so she goes alone, despite having no will to do so; eventually Giles and the Scoobies change their minds and leave to catch up. Although Spike initially thinks that things would be better for him if Buffy was dead, he also changes his mind and decides to help Buffy; Sweet opines that Buffy is drawn to danger ("Walk Through the Fire").

text: Meeting Sweet at The Bronze, Buffy offers a deal to Sweet: she will take the place of her sister if she can’t kill him. When asked by Sweet what she thinks about life, Buffy gives her pessimistic take on its meaning ("Something to Sing About"). When the others arrive, she divulges that Willow took her from heaven, and Willow reacts with horror at finding out what she’s done. Upon divulging this truth, Buffy gives up on singing and dances so frenetically that she begins to smoke — on the verge of combusting as Sweet’s other victims have been shown to do — until Spike stops her, telling her that the only way to go forward is to just keep living her life. Xander then reveals that he, not Dawn, called Sweet, hoping he would be shown a happy ending for his marriage plans. Sweet, after releasing Xander from the obligation to be Sweet's “bride”, tells the group how much fun they have been ("What You Feel—Reprise") and disappears. The Scoobies realize that their relationships have been changed irreversibly by the secrets revealed in their songs ("Where Do We Go from Here?"). Spike leaves The Bronze, but Buffy follows him out, and they kiss ("Coda").

text: Production and writing[edit]

text: Joss Whedon had wanted to make a musical episode since the start of the series. This was heightened during the fifth season when he hosted a Shakespeare reading at his house, to which the cast was invited. They began drinking and singing, demonstrating to Whedon that certain cast members had musical talents.[6][7] Whedon knew he would have to write an entire score, which would take weeks or months. During the first three seasons of Buffy, he was unable to take more than two weeks off at a time, and the constraints of writing and directing the show precluded him from putting forth the effort of preparing a musical. Whedon spoke to the show's producer, Gareth Davies, about his idea; they agreed that a musical episode would be written.[8]

text: Whedon spent six months writing the music for "Once More, with Feeling".[8] When he returned after the end of the fifth season, he presented Davies with a script and CD, complete with notated and orchestrated music, which Davies found "mind-boggling".[9] The actors were initially bewildered; in 2012, James Marsters commented that "it's obvious now that they were good songs but the thing was Joss and his wife Kai, they don't sing very well. And they don't play piano very well. The songs sounded really cheesy and horrible... We were saying, 'Joss, you're ruining our careers.'"[10]

text: Preparing for the episode was physically difficult for some of the cast members, most of whom had little experience singing and dancing. They spent three months in voice training.[8][note 1] Two choreographers worked with Whedon and the cast on dance sequences. Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn), who is trained in ballet, requested a dance sequence in lieu of a significant singing part,[9] and Alyson Hannigan (Willow), according to Whedon, begged him not to give her many lines.[6][12] Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy) told the BBC that "It took something like 19 hours of singing and 17 hours of dancing in between shooting four other episodes" and she was so anxious about singing that she "hated every moment of it".[13] When Whedon suggested using a voice double for her, however, she said, "I basically started to cry and said, 'You mean someone else is going to do my big emotional turning point for the season?' In the end, it was an incredible experience and I'm glad I did it. And I never want to do it again."[14] Davies was so impressed with Hinton Battle's performance on Broadway in The Wiz that he asked Battle to play the demon Sweet. Battle, a three-time Tony-winner, wore prosthetic make-up for the first time to give him a demonic red face. Sweet was portrayed as "slick", smooth and stylish; in contrast, most demons on the series were designed to be crude and ugly.[9] The set for The Bronze was used frequently throughout the series, but stairs were built from the stage to maximize floor space for Battle's dance.[6]

text: Running eight minutes longer than any in the series,[note 2] the episode was also the most technical and complex. Whedon, who has stated this is one of his favorite Buffy episodes, used a widescreen letterbox format for filming (the only episode in the series to get this treatment),[12] different lighting to bring out the sets more vibrantly, and long takes for shooting—including a complicated shot with a full conversation, a song, and two choreographed dances that took 21 attempts to get right. These were designed to give viewers all the clues they needed to establish all the nuances of the relationships between characters.[6] Davies commented that the intricacies of filming this episode were "infinitely more complicated than a regular Buffy" episode,[9] and Whedon stated in the DVD commentary that he was ambitious to prove what television is capable of, saying "it just depends how much you care".[6] UPN, the television network that aired Buffy's last two seasons, promoted the episode by displaying Gellar's face on billboards with music notes over her eyes, and held a special premiere event. Network president Dean Valentine remarked he thought it was "one of the best episodes of television I ever saw in my life".[15]

text: Critics hailed the episode as successful in telling a complex story about all the characters in a unique way, while retaining the series' effective elements of writing and character development. Throughout the show—as in the rest of the series—the characters self-consciously address their own dialogue and actions. Anya describes her own duet "I'll Never Tell" as "a retro pastiche that's never gonna be a breakaway pop hit". With a characteristic dry demeanor, Giles explains that he overheard the information about Sunnydale residents spontaneously combusting as he was eavesdropping upon the police taking "witness arias".[16] In her opening number, "Going Through the Motions", Buffy sings that she feels as though she is playing a part: "nothing here is real, nothing here is right". The song introduces the character's emotional state but also removes the barrier between the actor and the audience, as Gellar the actor portrays Buffy, who feels she is merely playing the part of the Slayer. This hints to the audience that the episode's musical format is strange to the actors and characters.[7] According to Buffy essayist Richard Albright, the lack of polish among cast members' singing voices added to the authenticity of their breaking out into song for the first time in the series.[7][note 3] Whedon included self-conscious dialogue and references about the characters being in a musical and showed their reluctance toward song and dance, so that the audience would feel more comfortable with the improbability of such a thing happening on the show.[6]

text: Themes[edit]

text:
It is part of the fascination of "Once More, with Feeling", that we can, if we wish, choose to select our relationship with the text and dwell on a happy ending—or we can share the struggle of the characters.

Rhonda Wilcox, 2005[17]

tag: div

text: The dynamic nature of the characters was a unique element of writing in the series at the time. Once they were established in the twelve episodes of the first season, characters began to change and relationships were developed in the second. This continued through the series to the point of unpredictability that sometimes became unsettling to fans.[18] Buffy essayist Marguerite Krause asserts that the monsters and demons faced by the Scoobies are thin symbolism for the show's true focus: relationships and how to maintain or ruin them.[19] Common among most of these relationships—romantic, platonic, and familial—is, according to Krause, a "failure to communicate, lack of trust, [and the] inability to envision or create a viable future".[20] Miscommunication is worsened or sustained through multiple episodes and seasons, leading to overwhelming misunderstanding and critical turning points for the characters, some of whom do not recover.[21]

text: "Once More, with Feeling" propelled the story arc for season six by allowing characters to confess previously taboo issues to themselves and each other.[22] Whedon commented that he was "obsessive about progressing a plot in a song, about saying things we haven't said", comparing the musical theater format to the fourth-season episode "Hush", in which characters begin communicating when they stop talking.[6] According to Buffy essayist Zoe-Jane Playdon, earlier episodes' "false saccharine behaviour" impedes the characters so crucially that it summons a demon to force them to be honest.[23] The consequences in the episode of concealing truth, spontaneous combustion, is an allusion to Bleak House by Charles Dickens—of whom Whedon is a fan—where characters also face immolation for being deceitful.[24] For Buffy, however, truth is slow in coming, as she continues to lie to the Scoobies, claiming to forget what she sang about in the graveyard during "Going Through the Motions". Buffy continues her charade in the chorus number "If We're Together", beginning the song by persuading others to join in one by one, as if each is convinced that she is still invested and in charge, and their strength as a group is infallible. Although she asks in verse "Apocalypse / We've all been there / The same old trips / Why should we care?", all the Scoobies join her, including Giles despite his suspicions that Buffy is no longer interested in her life.[6][25]

text: Secrets reveal themselves steadily throughout the episode. Xander fears that his future marriage will turn him into an argumentative drunk like his father. He attempts to avoid his fears through the song "I'll Never Tell", singing "'coz there's nothing to tell", after summoning Sweet to Sunnydale to show him that he and Anya will be happy. Amid the various annoyances Xander and Anya express through this song, some verses are clear-sighted observations of behavior, such as Anya's accusation that Xander—once in love with Buffy—uses Buffy as a mother figure to hide behind.[26] Anya also avoids the truth by burying herself in wedding plans without thinking critically about what being married will entail; instead she considers Xander an accessory to her desired lifestyle.[27] Of all the characters, Anya is the most preoccupied with the style of singing and songs, demanding to know if Spike sang "a breakaway pop hit, or a book number", and asking Dawn if the pterodactyl she facetiously says she gave birth to also broke into song. Anya and Xander's duet is the only song in the episode to address the audience directly. During the long single-shot scene when she and Xander talk over each other insisting to Giles that evil must be at play, Anya refers to the audience, saying "It was like we were being watched ... Like there was a wall missing ... in our apartment ... Like there were only three walls and not a fourth wall." Albright asserts that Anya's constant preoccupation with her and others' performances indicates that she has serious doubts about her future supporting role as Xander's wife.[7]

text: Giles' truth, according to Whedon, is that he realizes he must not "fight my kid's battles or my kid will never grow up",[9] which he sings in "Standing" while he throws knives at Buffy as part of her training. Whedon remarked that this touch "is the kind of complete turnaround that is a staple of the Buffy universe".[6] Tara's heartfelt love song also has an ironic subtext; although she appears to mean that she is fulfilled by her relationship with Willow, the lyrics include multiple allusions to Willow working her manipulative will over Tara, overlaid with Tara's euphoric singing about her pleasure in their union.[7] In Sex and the Slayer, Lorna Jowett calls the song between Willow and Tara the transformational event in their relationship, from Tara's subservient bearing towards Willow, into a relationship of equals.[28] Two Buffy essayists note that Willow and Giles sing together at the start of the episode, but later Tara and Giles share a duet to express the diminished part each plays in their respective relationships.[29]

text: Although "Once More, with Feeling" allows all the characters to confess truthfully, with the exception of Willow, it does not resolve the behavior that demanded confession in the first place. At the end of the episode, Buffy kisses Spike, initiating a romance that she hides from her friends. Their relationship lasts until the end of the series, marked for a time by Buffy's loathing of him because he has no soul. Her relationship with Spike, however, allows her to feel lust and attraction, which she yearns for after being pulled back from a heavenly dimension.[30] In The Psychology of Joss Whedon, Mikhail Lubyansky writes that, although Buffy's first step toward re-engaging with her life is telling the Scoobies the truth in the song "Something to Sing About", she does not find meaning again until the end of the season.[31] In his essay "A Kantian Analysis of Moral Judgment in Buffy the Vampire Slayer", Scott Stroud explains that Buffy, as the central character throughout the series, is torn between her desires and her duty, in a Kantian illustration of free will vs. predeterminism, symbolized by her responsibility as a Slayer and her adolescent impulses. In earlier seasons, this takes the form of simpler pleasures such as dating and socializing, interspersed with defeating evil forces. It reaches a climax in the ultimate sacrifice when Buffy offers to die to save the world. However, "Once More, with Feeling", according to Stroud, is the turning point at which she begins to face her responsibility to the community, her friends and her family. Not only does she continue her Slaying despite a lack of inspiration, but for the rest of the season she works at a humiliating job to provide for her sister and friends.[32]

text: Music and style[edit]

text: "Once More, with Feeling" was Joss Whedon's first attempt at writing music, which he had always wanted to do. He learned how to play guitar to write several songs. Christophe Beck, a regular composer for the series, filled in the overture and coda and composed "Dawn's Ballet". Whedon is a fan of Stephen Sondheim, and used him as the inspiration for much of the music, particularly with the episode's ambiguous ending.[16] Cast member James Marsters (Spike) said, "Some of Joss' music is surprisingly complicated. Maybe it's a Beatles thing. He doesn't know enough to know what he can't do and he's smashing rules."[14]

text: The episode's musical style varies significantly. Buffy's opening number, "Going Through the Motions", was influenced heavily by the Disney song "Part of Your World" sung by Ariel in The Little Mermaid. Whedon wanted to use a similar opening in which the heroine explains her yearning. While singing her song, Buffy fights three vampires and a demon who themselves break into a choreographed dance; Whedon wanted this to be fun but not distracting. The song ends with chord influences from Stephen Schwartz's Pippin and a visual tribute to Disney: as Buffy stakes a vampire, it turns to dust that swirls around her face.[6][33]

text: Whedon chose the most complicated scene, with the most dancers and choreography in the classic style of musical theater, to accompany an 18-second song ("The Mustard") "to get it out of the way" for more personal numbers later in the episode.[6] Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com considers this "brilliant because it frees even people who hate musicals to settle into the story without getting hung up on the genre's conventions".[34] The musical styles span from a jaunty 1950s sitcom arrangement of the Buffy theme in the opening credits—the only episode in the series to begin without the normal version of the theme song and full cast roll, signifying a genre shift[7]—to Anya's hard-rock version of "Bunnies". Whedon assigned Emma Caulfield the rock-opera format because Caulfield often sang in such a way to him on the set.[6] Spike's "Rest in Peace" is also a rock song, which Whedon wrote after completing the episode's first song, Tara's "Under Your Spell", a contemporary pop song with radio-play potential. Xander and Anya's duet—the most fun to shoot but difficult to write, according to Whedon[6]—is inspired by Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers comedies as evidenced by the silken pajama costumes and art deco apartment setting.[35] Musically, the song uses influences from Ira Gershwin, a Charleston rhythm, and jazz-like chord slides.[36] Giles' "Standing" is a ballad to Buffy that she does not hear, unlike the songs revealing truths elsewhere in the episode.[37] Whedon shot the scene so that Giles moves in real time while Buffy works out in slow motion, to accentuate Giles' distance from her. Buffy's not hearing his song was intentional; Whedon explained, "You can sing to someone in musicals and they can never know how you feel or how much you love them, even if they're standing right in front of you".[6]

text: "Under Your Spell" received attention from Buffy studies writers because it presents a frank and unflinching expression of lesbian romance. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the first show in U.S. television history to portray a long-term lesbian relationship among the core cast of characters.[38] Previous televised depictions of lesbian relations were primarily limited to single "coming out" or "lesbian kiss" episodes, showing lesbian-identified characters as affectionate but not erotic.[note 4] Tara and Willow demonstrate throughout the series, and specifically in "Once More, with Feeling", that they are "intensely sexual", according to Buffy essayist Justine Larbalestier. Near the end of Tara's song, she sings, "Lost in ecstasy / Spread beneath my Willow tree / You make me / Com — plete", as Tara levitates off the bed while Willow tacitly performs cunnilingus on her.[39] Lorna Jowett called the song "the most erotic scene" of the series.[40] Whedon admitted on the DVD commentary for the episode that the song is "pornography" and "probably the dirtiest lyric I've ever written, but also very, very beautiful".[6]

text: Buffy essayist Ian Shuttleworth writes that Amber Benson (Tara) has "the sweetest singing voice of all the lead players", referring to "Under Your Spell" as "heavenly and salacious"; author Nikki Stafford concurs, writing that Benson "has the most stunning voice, showing a surprising range".[12] Whedon acknowledged that the "lyrical, heavenly quality" of Benson's voice led him to assign her the episode's love song.[9] Alyson Hannigan (Willow) was unwilling to sing much and her performance is "apprehensive", according to Shuttleworth. He considers this an example of Tara's quieter strength coming out in front of Willow's showy demonstrations of powerful magic.[41] Buffy studies scholar Rhonda Wilcox interprets Willow's diminished role representing the show's silence about Willow's descent into addiction and darkness through the rest of the season.[42] Benson remarked that Tara's story arc is significant within the episode, starting out with ecstasy but soon recognizing the illusory circumstances surrounding her bliss and that "life can't be perfect all the time".[9]

text: The most complicated song, "Walk Through the Fire", leads all the characters to the climax from different locations for different reasons, reminiscent of the "Tonight Quintet" from West Side Story.[43] When they all sing the chorus at once to the line "We will walk through the fire / And let it — burn", two fire trucks race behind the Scoobies as they proceed to the Bronze. Whedon called the shot the "single greatest thing we ever did".[6] Each of the singers in this song, which "marries soft rock to the function of a dirge", connects musically to earlier songs while foreshadowing Buffy's next number and the final chorus, providing an ominous anxiety.[44]

text: Buffy's numbers are the most complex, changing key and tempo when she begins to reveal the secrets she swore she never would.[12] This appears specifically in "Something to Sing About", which starts with uptempo platitudes: "We'll sing a happy song / And you can sing along: / Where there's life, there's hope / Every day's a gift / Wishes can come true / Whistle while you work ..." While singing, she kills Sweet's minions with a pool cue. Whedon attempted to make the song tuneful yet chaotic to express the main point of the episode.[6] It transitions suddenly into her desire to be like normal girls, then changes again, slowing the tempo as she challenges Sweet not to give her a song, but "something to sing about".[45] Musicologist Amy Bauer categorizes the tempo shifts as "rock ballad to punk polka to hymn" that indicates Buffy's turmoil. The key and tempo slow again, as Buffy finally reveals "I live in hell / 'Cause I've been expelled from heaven / I think I was in heaven" with the chord changing from B minor to B diminished, each time she repeats "heaven".[46] When replying to her, Spike has the same shift from minor to diminished each time he repeats the word "living."

text: The episode nears the end with "Where Do We Go from Here?", as the Scoobies stand dazed and disoriented, facing different directions. As they sing "Understand we'll go hand in hand / But we'll walk alone in fear", they line up, hold hands, then fling each other's hands away in a piece of what Whedon calls "literal choreography".[6] Each of the eight characters in this line wears a color in the visible spectrum, a conscious decision by the costume designer. The couples in the group wear opposite colors (Giles in green and Buffy in red, Anya in blue and Xander in orange, Tara in yellow and Willow in purple), and Rhonda Wilcox interprets the color-coding and choreography to represent the "tension between the individual and the group".[47] The characters as a chorus sing "The curtains close on a kiss, God knows / We can tell the end is near", moments before Buffy runs out to kiss Spike and the show closes with actual curtains. As Spike and Buffy kiss, a swell of music accompanies them, similar to the ending of Gone with the Wind. Lyrics sung moments before, however, forecast the uncertainty of the relationship between Spike and Buffy, as well as their contrasting reasons for initiating any romance; Spike wants to feel love from Buffy, while she simply wants to feel.[42]

text: Reception[edit]

text: When the episode was originally broadcast in the United States on UPN on November 6, 2001, it received a Nielsen rating of 3.4 and a share of 5. This placed the episode in sixth place in its timeslot, and 88th among broadcast television for the week of November 5–11, 2001. It was the most watched program on UPN that night, and the third most watched program that week, trailing episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise and WWF SmackDown.[48] This was a decrease from the 3.7 rating received by the previous episode a week prior.[49]

text: "Once More, with Feeling" received widespread critical acclaim from media and critics when it aired, during overseas syndication, and in reminiscences of the best episodes of Buffy after the series ended. Although Salon.com writer Stephanie Zacharek states "(t)he songs were only half-memorable at best, and the singing ability of the show's regular cast ranged only from the fairly good to the not so great", she also asserts that it works "beautifully", paces itself gracefully, and is "clever and affecting".[34] Zacharek's unenthusiastic assessments of the music and cast's singing abilities were not shared by other writers. Debi Enker in Australia's The Age writes, "Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) and Tara (Amber Benson) are terrific, Xander (Nicholas Brendon) and Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) struggle valiantly, and Willow (Alyson Hannigan) barely sings a note".[50] Tony Johnston in The Sunday Herald Sun writes that Gellar "struggles on some of her higher notes, but her dance routines are superb, Michelle Trachtenberg's Dawn reveals sensual dance moves way beyond her tender years, and James Marsters' Spike evokes a sort of Billy Idol yell to disguise his lack of vocal proficiency [...] The rest of the cast mix and match like ready-made Broadway troupers." Johnston counts "I'll Never Tell" as one of the episode's "standout moments".[13] Connie Ogle in The Miami Herald calls the songs "better and far more clever than most of the ones you'll hear on Broadway these days".[51]

text: Writers agree that the episode was risky and could have failed spectacularly. Jonathan Bernstein in the British newspaper The Observer writes "What could have been, at best, an eccentric diversion and, at worst, a shuddering embarrassment, succeeded on every level [...] It provided a startling demonstration that creator Joss Whedon has a facility with lyrics and melody equal to the one he's demonstrated for the past six seasons with dialogue, character and plot twists. Rather than adopt the 'Hey, wouldn't it be wacky if we suddenly burst into song?' approach practised by Ally McBeal, the Buffy musical was entirely organic to the series' labyrinthine progression." [52] Johnston in the Sunday Herald Sun says, "There is just so much to this marvellously cheeky episode that suggests the show can take any route it pleases and pull it off",[13] while Debi Enker in The Age comments, "Whedon demonstrates yet again what Buffy aficionados have known and appreciated for years: that his wit, playfulness and readiness to take a risk make his television efforts rise way above the pack."[50] Steve Murray in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution characterizes the episode as "scary in a brand-new way", saying "Once More, with Feeling" is "as impressive as Whedon's milestone episodes 'Hush' and 'The Body'"; the episode is "often hilarious", according to Murray, and acts as "(b)oth spoof and homage, [parodying] the hokiness of musicals while also capturing the guilty pleasure and surges of feeling the genre inspires".[53]

text: Writing in the Toronto Star, Vinay Menon calls "Once More, with Feeling" "dazzling" and writes of "Joss Whedon's inimitable genius"; he goes on to say "(f)or a show that already violates conventions and morphs between genres, its allegorical narrative zigging and zagging seamlessly across chatty comedy, drama and over-the-top horror, 'Once More, with Feeling' is a towering achievement [...] The show may be anchored by existential weightiness, it may be painted with broad, supernatural brushstrokes, but in the end, this coming-of-age story, filled with angst and alienation, is more real than any other so-called teen drama [...] So let's add another line of gushing praise: 'Once More, with Feeling' is rhapsodic, original, deeply affecting, and ultimately, transcendental. Quite simply, television at its best."[54]

text: The episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Musical Direction, but the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) neglected to include the title on the ballots for Emmy nominations in 2002. NATAS attempted to remedy this by mailing a postcard informing its voters that it should be included, but the episode did not win. NATAS' oversight, according to the Washington Post, was "another example of the lack of industry respect afforded one of television's most consistently clever shows".[55] Ogle in The Miami Herald vigorously protests this omission, writing, "[T]he most astonishing, entertaining hour (hour plus, actually) of TV in the past year slips by virtually unnoticed. Nothing here is real; nothing here is right. Buffy the Vampire Slayer's musical episode, 'Once More, with Feeling', registers a paltry outstanding music direction nomination. Nice for the musical directors. A stake through the aspirations of writer/director Joss Whedon, the beating creative heart of Buffy, the only TV writer brave and clever enough to use horror as one great big wonderful metaphor for growing up [...] 'Once More, with Feeling' is TV of a different sort, something that comes along once in a lifetime and should not be buried but celebrated and rewarded."[51] The episode was also nominated for a Best Dramatic Presentation Hugo Award and a Best Script Nebula Award, both given for excellence in science fiction and fantasy writing.[56][57] In 2009 TV Guide ranked the episode #14 on its list of "TV's Top 100 Episodes of All Time".[58] For its 65th anniversary, TV Guide picked it as the fifth best episode of the 21st century.[59]

text: Soundtrack[edit]

text: An album including all 14 songs in the episode, with Christophe Beck's scores for three other Buffy episodes, was released by Rounder Records in September 2002 as season seven premiered. John Virant, president and chief executive of Rounder Records, told the Los Angeles Times, "I remember watching the episode when it aired last October, and after it was over, I said to my wife, 'That's the best hour of TV I've ever seen. Someone should put that [soundtrack] out.' I inquired at Fox, just following up, and they said, 'Well, we tried, it didn't happen. If you want to take a run at it, feel free.'"[60] AllMusic gives the album five out of five stars, stating that the music is "every bit as fun as the episode itself", praising the voices of Benson, Marsters and Head. Reviewer Melinda Hill states it is "a must-have for Buffy fans, but it wouldn't be out of place in anyone's collection".[61]

text:
Chart (2002)
Peak

Australian ARIA Albums Chart[62]
97

U.S. Billboard 200[63]
49

U.S. Billboard Top Soundtracks[63]
3

text: DVD releases[edit]

text: In addition to featuring on the sixth season box set, "Once More, with Feeling" was individually released on DVD in Region 2 format on April 14, 2003,[64] the only episode to be individually released.[65] In Region 1, the episode was released on the sixth season box set on May 25, 2004, over a year later than the Region 2 release.[66]

text: Influence on television[edit]

text: Since the musical episode of Buffy aired, several other series have worked musical format into episodes, including Scrubs, ("My Musical") in 2007,[67] an episode of Grey's Anatomy entitled "Song Beneath the Song" in 2011[68] and Batman: The Brave and the Bold, ("Mayhem of the Music Meister!") in 2009. The musical television episode was declared a genre, a gimmick, according to Mary Williams at Salon.com, for series that had run out of interesting story lines and characters. Both Williams and Margaret Lyons at New York magazine, however, declared "Once More, with Feeling" the "gold standard" for musical episodes.[69][70] Despite this, Joss Whedon recognized the influence "Once More, with Feeling" has had on other shows, but denied that it was primarily responsible for the rise in musical television episodes or series such as Glee, citing the popularity of High School Musical instead.[71]

text: Public showings[edit]

text: Buffy the Vampire Slayer developed an enthusiastic fan following while it aired. Following its series finale, fans continued their appreciation in theater showings of "Once More, with Feeling" where attendees are encouraged to dress like the show's characters, sing along to the musical numbers, and otherwise interact in the style of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.[72] Clinton McClung, a New York-based film programmer, got the idea for a sing-along from audience-participation showings of The Sound of Music in 2003. The next year, he began putting on sing-alongs to "Once More, with Feeling" in Boston's Coolidge Corner Theater, which became so popular that it went on the road. Audience members received props to use during key scenes, as well as directions (for example, to yell "Shut up, Dawn!" at Buffy's younger sister), and a live cast performed the episode alongside the screen.[73]

text: Buffy sing-alongs received growing media attention as they spread. At the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival, a special screening and sing-along was held that featured both Marti Noxon and Joss Whedon giving brief speeches to the audience.[74] In October 2007, after a dispute with the Screen Actors Guild over unpaid residuals, 20th Century Fox pulled the licensing for public screenings of "Once More, with Feeling", effectively ending official Buffy sing-alongs. Whedon called the cancellation "hugely depressing" and attempted to influence the studio to allow future showings.[75]


document_title: Jnanpith Award

question_text: the recipient of first jnanpith award was an author which language

text: Jnanpith Award

text: Background[edit]

text: The Bharatiya Jnanpith, a research and cultural institute founded in 1944 by industrialist Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain of the Sahu Jain family, conceived an idea in May 1961 to start a scheme "commanding national prestige and of international standard" to "select the best book out of the publications in Indian languages".[3][7] Later in November, Rama Jain, the Founder President of the Bharatiya Jnanpith, invited a few literary experts to discuss various aspects of the scheme. Jain along with Kaka Kalelkar, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Jainendra Kumar, Jagdish Chandra Mathur, Prabhakar Machwe, Akshaya Kumar Jain, and Lakshmi Chandra Jain presented the initial draft to the then President of India Rajendra Prasad who had shown interest in the scheme's implementation. The idea was also discussed at the 1962 annual sessions of the All India Gujarati Sahitya Parishad and the Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad.[3]

text: On 2 April 1962, around 300 writers of various Indian languages were invited to Delhi for the two sessions conducted by Dharamvir Bharati in which the draft was finalised and later presented to Prasad. The first award selection committee meeting was scheduled on 16 March 1963 and Prasad was appointed as its president.[3] However, Prasad died on 28 February 1963 and thus the scheduled meeting was chaired by Kalelkar and Sampurnanand acted as president of the committee.[3][9]

text: The first Selection Board consisted of Kalelkar, Niharranjan Ray, Karan Singh, R. R. Diwakar, V. Raghavan, B. Gopal Reddy, Harekrushna Mahatab, Rama Jain, and Lakshmi Chandra Jain and was headed by Sampurnanand. Works that were published between 1921 and 1951 were considered for the first award. The nine language committees that were formed were to submit to the board nominations along with translations of the work into Hindi or English. The final round had four authors; Kazi Nazrul Islam (Bengali), D. V. Gundappa (Kannada), Viswanatha Satyanarayana (Telugu), and G. Sankara Kurup (Malayalam). On 19 November 1966, Kurup was presented with the citation, statue of Saraswati, and a cheque for prize of ₹1 lakh (US$1,600) at a ceremony held at Vigyan Bhavan, Delhi.[c] In his acceptance speech, Kurup appreciated the concept of the new award and thanked it for bringing "integration of the diverse people of this land on a spiritual plane".[10]

text: Rules and selection process[edit]

text: The nominations for the award are received from various literary experts, teachers, critics, universities, and numerous literary and language associations. Every three years, an advisory committee is constituted for each of the languages.[3] The language of the most recent recipient's work is not eligible for consideration for the next two years.[2] Each committee consists of three literary critics and scholars of their respective languages. All the nominations are scrutinised by the committee and their recommendations are submitted to the Jnanpith Award Selection Board (Pravara Parishad).[2][3]

text: The Selection Board consists of between seven and eleven members of "high repute and integrity". Each member is part of the committee for a term of three years which can also be extended further for two more terms.[3] The recommendations of all language advisory committees are evaluated by the board based on complete or partial translations of the selected writings of the proposed writers into Hindi or English. The recipient for a particular year is announced by the Selection Board, which has final authority in selection.[2]

text: List of recipients[edit]

text:
Key

†
Indicates a joint award for the given year

text:
List of award recipients, showing the year, and language(s)[11]

Year
Recipient(s)
Language(s)
Refs./Notes

1965
(1st)
Kurup, G. SankaraG. Sankara Kurup
Malayalam !Malayalam
[d][12]

1966
(2nd)
Bandyopadhyay, TarasankarTarasankar Bandyopadhyay
Bengali !Bengali
[e][12]

1967
(3rd) †
Joshi, UmashankarUmashankar Joshi
Gujarati !Gujarati
[f][12]

1967
(3rd) †
Puttappa 'Kuvempu', Kuppali VenkatappaKuppali Venkatappa Puttappa 'Kuvempu'
Kannada !Kannada
[g][12]

1968
(4th)
Pant, SumitranandanSumitranandan Pant
Hindi !Hindi
[h][12]

1969
(5th)
Gorakhpuri, FiraqFiraq Gorakhpuri
Urdu !Urdu
[i][12]

1970
(6th)
Satyanarayana, ViswanathaViswanatha Satyanarayana
Telugu !Telugu
[j][12]

1971
(7th)
Dey, BishnuBishnu Dey
Bengali !Bengali
[k][12]

1972
(8th)
Singh 'Dinkar', RamdhariRamdhari Singh 'Dinkar'
Hindi !Hindi
[l][12]

1973
(9th) †
Bendre, D. R.D. R. Bendre
Kannada !Kannada
[m][12]

1973
(9th) †
Mohanty, GopinathGopinath Mohanty
Odia !Odia
[n][12]

1974
(10th)
Khandekar, Vishnu SakharamVishnu Sakharam Khandekar
Marathi !Marathi
[o][12]

1975
(11th)
, AkilanAkilan
Tamil !Tamil
[p][12]

1976
(12th)
Devi, AshapoornaAshapoorna Devi
Bengali !Bengali
[q][12]

1977
(13rd)
Karanth, K. ShivaramK. Shivaram Karanth
Kannada !Kannada
[r][12]

1978
(14th)
Vatsyayan, SachchidanandaSachchidananda Vatsyayan
Hindi !Hindi
[s][12]

1979
(15th)
Bhattacharya, Birendra KumarBirendra Kumar Bhattacharya
Assamese !Assamese
[t][12]

1980
(16th)
Pottekkatt, S. K.S. K. Pottekkatt
Malayalam !Malayalam
[u][12]

1981
(17th)
Pritam, AmritaAmrita Pritam
Punjabi !Punjabi
[v][12]

1982
(18th)
Varma, MahadeviMahadevi Varma
Hindi !Hindi
[13]

1983
(19th)
Iyengar, Masti VenkateshaMasti Venkatesha Iyengar
Kannada !Kannada
[14]

1984
(20th)
Pillai, Thakazhi SivasankaraThakazhi Sivasankara Pillai
Malayalam !Malayalam
[15]

1985
(21st)
Patel, PannalalPannalal Patel
Gujarati !Gujarati
[16]

1986
(22nd)
Routray, SachidanandaSachidananda Routray
Odia !Odia
[17]

1987
(23rd)
Shirwadkar 'Kusumagraj', Vishnu VamanVishnu Vaman Shirwadkar 'Kusumagraj'
Marathi !Marathi
[18]

1988
(24th)
Reddy, C. NarayanaC. Narayana Reddy
Telugu !Telugu
[19]

1989
(25th)
Hyder, QurratulainQurratulain Hyder
Urdu !Urdu
[20]

1990
(26th)
Gokak, Vinayaka KrishnaVinayaka Krishna Gokak
Kannada !Kannada
[21]

1991
(27th)
Mukhopadhyay, SubhashSubhash Mukhopadhyay
Bengali !Bengali
[22]

1992
(28th)
Mehta, NareshNaresh Mehta
Hindi !Hindi
[23]

1993
(29th)
Mahapatra, SitakantSitakant Mahapatra
Odia !Odia
[24]

1994
(30th)
Ananthamurthy, U. R.U. R. Ananthamurthy
Kannada !Kannada
[25]

1995
(31st)
Nair, M. T. VasudevanM. T. Vasudevan Nair
Malayalam !Malayalam
[26]

1996
(32nd)
Devi, MahaswetaMahasweta Devi
Bengali !Bengali
[27]

1997
(33rd)
Jafri, Ali SardarAli Sardar Jafri
Urdu !Urdu
[28]

1998
(34th)
Karnad, GirishGirish Karnad
Kannada !Kannada
[29]

1999
(35th) †
Verma, NirmalNirmal Verma
Hindi !Hindi
[30]

1999
(35th) †
Singh, GurdialGurdial Singh
Punjabi !Punjabi
[30]

2000
(36th)
Goswami, Mamoni RaisomMamoni Raisom Goswami
Assamese !Assamese
[31]

2001
(37th)
Shah, RajendraRajendra Shah
Gujarati !Gujarati
[32]

2002
(38th)
Jayakanthan, Jayakanthan
Tamil !Tamil
[33]

2003
(39th)
Karandikar, VindaVinda Karandikar
Marathi !Marathi
[34]

2004
(40th)
Rahi, RehmanRehman Rahi
Kashmiri !Kashmiri
[35]

2005
(41st)
Narayan, KunwarKunwar Narayan
Hindi !Hindi
[36]

2006
(42nd) †
Kelekar, RavindraRavindra Kelekar
Konkani !Konkani
[36]

2006
(42nd) †
Shastri, Satya VratSatya Vrat Shastri
Sanskrit !Sanskrit
[36]

2007
(43rd)
Kurup, O. N. V.O. N. V. Kurup
Malayalam !Malayalam
[37]

2008
(44th)
Khan 'Shahryar', Akhlaq MohammedAkhlaq Mohammed Khan 'Shahryar'
Urdu !Urdu
[38]

2009
(45th) †
Amarkant, Amarkant
Hindi !Hindi
[39]

2009
(45th) †
Sukla, Sri LalSri Lal Sukla
Hindi !Hindi
[39]

2010
(46th)
Kambara, ChandrashekharaChandrashekhara Kambara
Kannada !Kannada
[40]

2011
(47th)
Ray, PratibhaPratibha Ray
Odia !Odia
[41]

2012
(48th)
Bharadhwaja, RavuriRavuri Bharadhwaja
Telugu !Telugu
[42]

2013
(49th)
Singh, KedarnathKedarnath Singh
Hindi !Hindi
[43]

2014
(50th)
Nemade, BhalchandraBhalchandra Nemade
Marathi !Marathi
[44]

2015
(51st)
Chaudhari, RaghuveerRaghuveer Chaudhari
Gujarati !Gujarati
[45]

2016
(52nd)
Ghosh, ShankhaShankha Ghosh
Bengali !Bengali
[46]

2017
(53rd)
Sobti, Krishna Krishna Sobti
Hindi !Hindi
[47]

text: Explanatory notes[edit]

text:
Jump up ^ The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India consists of twenty-two languages viz. Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.[1]
Jump up ^ The trilogy consists of Pratham Pratisruti, Subarnalata, and Bakul Katha.
Jump up ^ The Malayalam language committee headed by N. V. Krishna Warrier submitted an undisputed nomination of Kurup's work Odakkuzhal although the Kerala Sahitya Akademi opined that no work in Malayalam language was worthy of the inaugural prize.[10]
Jump up ^ Awarded for Odakkuzhal.
Jump up ^ Awarded for Ganadevta.
Jump up ^ Awarded for Nishitha.
Jump up ^ Awarded for Sri Ramayana Darshanam.
Jump up ^ Awarded for Chidambara.
Jump up ^ Awarded for Gul-e-Naghma.
Jump up ^ Awarded for Ramayana Kalpavrukshamu.
Jump up ^ Awarded for Smriti Satta Bhavishyat.
Jump up ^ Awarded for Urvashi.
Jump up ^ Awarded for Nakutanti.
Jump up ^ Awarded for Matimatal.
Jump up ^ Awarded for Yayati.
Jump up ^ Awarded for Chitttrappavai.
Jump up ^ Awarded for Pratham Pratisruti.
Jump up ^ Awarded for Mookajjiya Kanasugalu.
Jump up ^ Awarded for Kitni Navon Men Kitni Bar.
Jump up ^ Awarded for Mrityunjay.
Jump up ^ Awarded for Oru Desathinte Katha.
Jump up ^ Awarded for Kagaj te Canvas.

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