document_title: Parks and Recreation (season 1)

question_text: when did the first season of parks and rec come out

text: Parks and Recreation (season 1)

text: Cast[edit]

text: Main[edit]

text:
Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope, the deputy director of the Pawnee parks department, who has not let politics dampen her sense of optimism; her ultimate goal is to become President of the United States. She has a strong love for her home town of Pawnee, and desires to use her position to improve it.[1]
Rashida Jones as Ann Perkins, a nurse who begins a friendship with Leslie after they collaborate to turn an empty pit next to Ann's house into a park. She slowly becomes more involved in the Pawnee government due to her friendship with Leslie.[2]
Paul Schneider as Mark Brendanawicz, a city planner with the Pawnee municipal government. He has long been disillusioned with government after being unable to achieve his career ambitions. Leslie harbors a strong crush on Mark due to a romantic encounter they had several years ago, but Mark does not return her feelings. Mark assists Leslie with her plan to turn the pit next to Ann's house into a park, despite believing that the plan has no chance of success.[3]
Aziz Ansari as Tom Haverford, Leslie's self-absorbed and underachieving subordinate. While he is an employee at the parks department, he cares little about his job, and is instead more focused on his entrepreneurial ambitions. He takes great pride in his personal appearance and regularly pursues women despite being married.
Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson, the cynical director of the parks department and Leslie's boss. Due to his incredibly negative view of politics, he regularly works to make his department as inefficient as possible. This leads him to butt heads with Leslie on a number of occasions, as her philosophy regarding politics is the polar opposite. Despite that, both he and Leslie have a large amount of respect for one another.
Aubrey Plaza as April Ludgate, a young apathetic intern at the parks department. She cares little for her internship, and often shows annoyance at having to complete tasks. Due to her rebellious and emotionless attitude, she is often annoyed by her co-workers, especially Leslie.

text: Recurring[edit]

text:
Chris Pratt as Andy Dwyer, Ann's boyfriend and lead singer of a band called "Mouse Rat". Before the start of the series, Andy falls into the pit next to Ann's house and breaks both his legs. This leads Ann to advocate for the pit to be filled in, beginning her friendship with Leslie. Andy is shown to be immature and lazy, making Ann pamper him non-stop due to his broken legs.
Jim O'Heir as Jerry Gergich, an incompetent and widely ridiculed employee at the parks department.
Retta as Donna Meagle, the no-nonsense office manager at the parks department.
Pamela Reed as Marlene Griggs-Knope, Leslie's mother. Marlene is a successful politician and figure in Pawnee's school system. Due to her success, Leslie constantly strives to impress her mother, despite the fact that Marlene has low expectations regarding her daughter's success.

text: Guest stars[edit]

text:
Alison Becker as Shauna Malwae-Tweep, a newspaper journalist for The Pawnee Journal.
Brian Huskey as Morgan, a sex offender.
Jim Meskimen as Martin Housely, an MC at many special events around Pawnee.
Lennon Parham as Kate Speevak, a mother who opposes the construction of Leslie's park.
Phil Reeves as Paul Iaresco, the Pawnee city manager who supports Leslie's plan for a new park.
Ian Roberts as Ian Winston, an angry citizen who complains about lewd behavior in one of Pawnee's parks.
Cooper Thornton as Dr. Harris, Ann's boss at Pawnee's hospital.
Jama Williamson as Wendy Haverford, a surgeon and Tom's attractive wife.

text: Episodes[edit]

text: † denotes an extended episode.

text:
No.overallNo. inseasonTitleDirected byWritten byOriginal air dateU.S. viewers(millions)11"Pilot"Greg DanielsGreg Daniels & Michael SchurApril 9, 2009 (2009-04-09)6.77[4]
Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) attends a town meeting to ask that a construction pit be filled in after her boyfriend, Andy (Chris Pratt), fell into it and broke his legs. Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), a mid-level bureaucrat in the Pawnee parks and recreation department, promises to help turn the pit into a beautiful park. She is helped by Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) and her former lover, city planner Mark Brendanawicz (Paul Schneider). Her boss, Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), who believes in as little government interference as possible, initially refuses to greenlight the project. But Mark, impressed with Leslie’s optimism, convinces Ron to approve it by calling in a favor.
22"Canvassing"Seth GordonRachel AxlerApril 16, 2009 (2009-04-16)5.92[5]
Leslie and the pit subcommittee canvas neighborhood houses to generate support for her park project and enroll attendees for an upcoming town meeting. The plan does not go as expected, especially when Tom detaches from the group and starts using questionable tactics, such as seeking favors from developers in return for preferential treatment. Leslie hopes the public meeting will impress her mother, local school official Marlene Griggs-Knope (Pamela Reed). However, the park's supporters do not attend and opponents turn out in large numbers to voice their disapproval. The project is nearly voted down, but Leslie resorts to a filibuster to save it.
33"The Reporter"Jeffrey BlitzDan GoorApril 23, 2009 (2009-04-23)5.24[6]
Leslie invites a local reporter (Alison Becker) to write a story about the pit, but the interviews go badly. Fearful of a negative story, Leslie asks Mark to talk to the reporter, but is jealous after Mark sleeps with her. When Leslie confronts Mark, he angrily quits the pit subcommittee. Ann convinces Mark to make up with Leslie and dissuade the reporter from using much of her negative material. Although the story is still largely unfavorable, Leslie remains optimistic. Meanwhile, Tom tries to advance his career by purposely losing online Scrabble games to his boss, Ron.
44"Boys' Club"Michael McCullersAlan YangApril 30, 2009 (2009-04-30)5.29[7]
As Andy cleans up the house to surprise Ann, Leslie tries to infiltrate the boys' club of politics by crashing an after-work gathering at Pawnee Town Hall. Trying to fit in, she opens a gift basket worth more than $25, breaking the local government ethics laws. She apologetically refers Pawnee officials to a website about the pit to highlight her accomplishments, but gets in more trouble when underage intern April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza) posts a video of herself drinking on the site. Leslie is called before an ethics committee, but is let off with a warning after Ron, who despises the town's disciplinary process, defends her. Leslie is pleased when Mark tells her the warning officially makes her a member of the boys' club.
55"The Banquet"Beth McCarthy-MillerTucker CawleyMay 7, 2009 (2009-05-07)4.64[8]
During a banquet honoring her mother's public service, Leslie tries to convince a local zoning official to support her proposed park project. The official resists the idea, so Leslie's mother suggests Leslie blackmail her with information about her husband's drinking problem. Leslie reluctantly goes along with the idea, but soon becomes uncomfortable with the seamy side of politics and decides not to go through with it. Meanwhile, Tom and Mark ditch the festivities to pick up women at a bar, but Mark finds he preferred hanging out with Leslie and Ann at the banquet.
66"Rock Show"†Michael SchurNorm HiscockMay 14, 2009 (2009-05-14)4.25[9]
Leslie attends what she believes is a business meeting with an elderly local government bigwig, unaware that her mother has secretly set her up on a blind date. An angry Ann learns Andy could have had his leg casts removed weeks ago, but lied about them so Ann would keep pampering him. Mark, disillusioned with his career, makes a pass at Ann, which she harshly rejects. Leslie and Mark end up drinking beer together by the pit and Mark tries to kiss her, but she refuses because he is drunk. Mark stumbles into the pit.

text: Production[edit]

text: Crew[edit]

text: Deedle-Dee Productions and Universal Media Studios produced the first season of Parks and Recreation; series creators Greg Daniels and Michael Schur were executive producers with Howard Klein. Dana Gould, Morgan Sackett and Amy Poehler produced, and Tucker Cawley and Norm Hiscock served as consulting producers.[10][11] Daniel J. Goor was the executive story editor for the season, and Rachel Axler was a story editor. Dean Holland, an editor on The Office, also worked as an editor on Parks and Recreation's first season.[12] Mike Scully, a former executive producer and show runner for The Simpsons, joined Parks and Recreation as a consulting producer starting with the episode "Boys' Club".[13][14] Cawley left the show at the end of the first season to create the short-lived ABC sitcom Hank, starring Kelsey Grammer.[15] Gould left to focus on his stand-up career. The other producers all returned for the second season. Allison Jones, who worked as a casting director for The Office, served in the same capacity for Parks and Recreation,[16] along with Nancy Perkins, for whom the character Ann Perkins was named.[17]

text: The pilot episode was directed by Greg Daniels,[18] and the season finale was directed by Michael Schur, his debut in the position.[16] Other directors included Seth Gordon, director of the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters;[19] Jeffrey Blitz, who had directed numerous episodes of The Office;[20] Michael McCullers, co-writer of the first two Austin Powers films, who directed Poehler in the comedy film Baby Mama;[21] and Beth McCarthy Miller, a longtime television director who worked with Poehler on the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live.[22] Daniels and Schur wrote the pilot episode, and the rest of the season's episodes were written by Axler, Goor, Hiscock, Cawley and Alan Yang.[20][23]

text: Cast[edit]

text: A principal cast of six actors received star billing in the show's first season.[10] Poehler portrayed the lead character, Leslie Knope, the naive but well-meaning, eager-to-please deputy director of the parks and recreation department of the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. Poehler said, upon reading the script provided by Michael Schur, "it took me five minutes to realize Leslie Knope was the best character ever written for me".[1] She also felt it took a few episodes before she started "feeling my groove" with the character, but came to realize the cast was extremely talented and "would eventually become like family".[1] Also among the cast were Aziz Ansari as Tom Haverford, a sarcastic parks department employee, and Rashida Jones as Ann Perkins, a nurse who befriends Leslie and tries to help her turn a giant construction pit into a park.[2] Daniels and Schur intended to cast Ansari and Jones (who previously appeared in The Office as Karen Filippelli) from the series' earliest stages of development, but the ultimate Parks and Recreation concept did not coalesce until they learned Poehler would be available to star. After her recruitment, the general concept of the series was established and the script for the pilot episode was written.[24]

text: Nick Offerman portrayed Ron Swanson, the director of the parks and recreation department. Offerman had previously auditioned for a part on The Office, and Schur was impressed with his comedic talents and wanted to cast him, but then Offerman became unavailable because he appeared on Will & Grace, a show starring his wife, Megan Mullally. Schur said, "I just wrote his name down on a post-it note and stuck it to my computer and said, 'Someday, I'm going to figure out what to do with that guy.'"[1] Aubrey Plaza played April Ludgate, a sarcastic and uninterested college intern.[25] The part was written specifically for Plaza. After meeting her, casting director Allison Jones told Schur, "I just met the weirdest girl I've ever met in my life. You have to meet her and put her on your show." Schur of meeting her,  "Aubrey came over to my office and made me feel really uncomfortable for like an hour, and immediately I wanted to put her in the show," although the writers were not immediately sure what direction her character would take.[1][26] Rounding out the main cast was Paul Schneider, best known for his work in independent films such as Lars and the Real Girl and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. He was cast as Mark Brendanawicz, a city planner and Leslie's unrequited love interest. She still harbors feelings for Mark from a one-night sexual encounter years ago.[3][27] Schneider said that early in the season he was insecure in the role because he was still trying to figure out the character's motivations.[28] Chris Pratt played Andy Dwyer, Ann's well-intentioned but lazy and simple-minded boyfriend. Although Pratt appeared in every episode of season 1, he was credited as guest star until the second season, when he was promoted to the main cast.[29] Andy was originally supposed to appear only in the first season, but the producers liked Pratt so much that, almost immediately after casting him, they decided to make Andy a regular character if the show was renewed.[26][30]

text: Jim O'Heir and Retta made regular appearances as Jerry Gergich and Donna Meagle, two fellow employees at the Pawnee parks and recreation department. The personalities of the two characters did not become developed until the second season, but Schur said the Parks and Recreation staff liked the actors so decided to include them in the show and "figured we'd work it out later".[26] Pamela Reed made several appearances as Marlene Griggs-Knope, Leslie's mother and an important figure in the Pawnee school system. Seth Gordon, who directed Reed in her first episode, "Canvassing", said she improvised a great deal during her audition, creating many elements that helped define Marlene's character.[23] Jama Williamson appeared in "Rock Show" as Wendy, the attractive surgeon wife of Tom Haverford. Wendy would make numerous appearances in season 2, during which it was revealed that the Haverfords have a green card marriage.[31][32] Eric Edelstein guest starred in two season 1 episodes, "Canvassing" and "Boys' Club", as Lawrence, a disgruntled neighbor of Andy's.[21]

text: Conception[edit]

text:
I think we were feeling that the first six episodes were like one big pilot, we shot it so fast. But we had plenty of ideas about what we wanted to do, and part of what takes time is learning how to write for and collaborate with the actors.
Greg Danielsseries co-creator[25]

tag: div

text: Immediately after Ben Silverman was named co-chairman of NBC's entertainment division in 2007, he asked Greg Daniels to create a spin-off of The Office, the half-hour comedy Daniels adapted from the British comedy of the same name, created by Ricky Gervais.[24][33] The idea of an Office spin-off stemmed from a subplot from the show's third season that followed characters in an office branch in Stamford, Connecticut, separate from the show's other characters, who were in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Silverman felt it could have served as its own series and began asking Daniels about the possibility of a spinoff. Daniels resisted the idea for several years out of fears of diltuing the quality of The Office, but Silverman eventually insisted upon a new show.[1] Daniels co-created Parks and Recreation with Michael Schur, who had been a writer on The Office. Like Daniels, Schur had previously worked on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live.[25] The two spent months considering ideas for the new series and debating whether to make it a stand-alone show rather than a spin-off,[1][24] with many of those conversations taking place at Norm's Diner in Van Nuys.[1]

text: According to Daniels, they eventually abandoned the original spin-off plan because they "couldn't find the right fit".[33] Daniels and Schur considered two "frontrunner ideas" about a family show done as a mockumentary, and a "mockumentary version of The West Wing",[1] which they felt could make the new show focus on the public sector in the same way that The Office was about the private sector.[1] They also considered a series about a local government official trying to rebuild a political career following a humiliating public spectacle, but ultimately abandoned the idea. However, it was ultimately incorporated into the backstory for Ben Wyatt, the character played by Adam Scott who was added late in the second season.[34][35] Daniels and Schur specifically sought to making avoid a political show about a "hypocrite running for office" or "bureaucrat who just makes everything impossible", which they felt were cliched and overdone stereotypes.[1] After Poehler agreed to play the lead, they decided the show would revolve around an optimistic bureaucrat in small-town government.[24] Schur said they sought to portray a "very optimistic kind of can-do spirit type person in the middle of (a) really Byzantine world (and) frustrating world".[1]

text: The idea was partly inspired by the portrayal of local politics on the HBO drama series The Wire,[25][36] as well as the renewed interest in and optimism about politics stemming from the 2008 United States presidential election.[1][25][36] Schur said they wanted to focus on government's involvement in people's lives at a "very micro level" because, during the Great Recession, there was a great deal of discussion and speculation about "a new Great Depression-era intervention in people's lives".[1] The writing staff was also drawn to the idea of building a show around a female relationship, namely Leslie Knope and Ann Perkins.[26] Reports that Daniels and Schur were developing a show together led to press speculation that it would, in fact, be a spin-off of The Office.[37][38] The producers insisted their new series would be entirely independent. Nevertheless, their concept for it shared several elements with The Office, particularly the mockumentary approach, which allows the actors to look at and directly address the camera. The new show would also include documentary-style interviews, in which the characters speak one-on-one with the camera crew about the day's events. Again as with The Office, the new series would be scripted but improvisation would be encouraged among the actors.[24] Schur said the writers considered an idea in which a broken copy machine from the Scranton setting of The Office ended up in the government officers of Parks and Recreation, thus jokingly making the copy machine the spun-off character from The Office, but the idea was ultimately abandoned.[39] Indiana was identified as a setting for the show because, Daniels said, "it's a Midwestern state that people don’t hear about much (and) didn't have a lot of stereotypes attached to it".[1]

text: The series was scheduled as a mid-season replacement[25] and rushed into production to meet the premiere date of April 9, 2009.[38] As a result, when the series was featured at a panel during the January 2009 television critics press tour, NBC did not have a finished episode to screen, only a copy of the pilot script available for review.[38] Some of the parts were still not cast and the series, which did not yet have a name, was referred to as The Untitled Amy Poehler Project or TUAPP.[30][40] The name Public Service was considered, but ultimately rejected because network officials did not want to be accused of mocking the idea. In a commercial that aired during NBC's Super Bowl coverage in February, it was announced that the series would be called Parks and Recreation.[41]

text: Writing[edit]

text: The show's writers spent time researching local California politics and attending Los Angeles City Council meetings.[25] Schur said they observed that many community hearings were attended only by those opposed, often angrily, to the proposals under consideration. This confirmed his existing impression: "I've been to some community meetings in my life, and it is often this feeling of utter sparseness. That nobody cares."[16] The depiction of public hearings in several Parks and Recreation episodes was inspired by this perspective, which was also the basis for the entire "Canvassing" episode.[23] Schur asked urban planners in Claremont, California, whether efforts to turn a construction pit into a park could realistically take several months or longer. They told him that was entirely plausible, and that they had recently broken ground on a park that had been in various planning stages for 18 years.[33] Schur said the pit project was conceived as a device to bring all the characters together, which was partially inspired by the way various characters in The Wire were brought together to work toward a common goal or project. The writers originally envisioned the pit becoming a park only in the series finale, although those plans were later changed and the pit was filled in during the second season.[26]

text: The Pawnee residents vocally opposed to Leslie's park proposal were based on real-life California residents the show's producers encountered who fought the construction of parks in their hometowns. One such group, the Committee for a Better Park, was actually opposed to parks in general, and the deceptiveness of their name and mission inspired the producers' writing for those characters.[42] The Parks and Recreation staff worked with a number of consultants familiar with local government work, including Scott Albright, a California city planner who provided feedback for the Mark Brendanawicz character.[43] Inspiration for Ron Swanson came from an encounter Schur had in Burbank with an elected official, a Libertarian who favored minimal government and admitted, "I don't really believe in the mission of my job."[1][25]

text: Daniels and Schur wrote the script for the pilot episode in mid-2008.[24] The original script portrayed Leslie and Mark as slightly less likable than they appeared in the final draft. For example, in the premiere episode, Mark asks Ron to greenlight the park because he is inspired by Leslie's optimism and wants to help her. In the original script, Mark intervened because he was attracted to Ann and wanted an excuse to keep seeing her. The characters were made more likable in response to feedback the episode received from focus groups and press tour screenings.[44] The first-season episodes were written and developed relatively quickly after each other, and Schur said the staff was treating the entire six-episode season as if it was one television pilot.[26] When the season concluded, the writers had not decided what would happen with the developing romantic plotlines between Leslie and Mark, or Mark and Ann.[45]

text: Parks and Recreation involves a mixture of written dialogue and comedic improvisation. In one example from the pilot episode, Aziz Ansari's character attempts to flirt with Rashida Jones's when she speaks at a parks and recreation public forum. Ansari continued to improvise long after completing his scripted dialogue.[16] In the season's final episode, "Rock Show", Andy goes through a list of the previous names of his rock band. About half the band names used in the episode came directly from the script, but after actor Chris Pratt made up one on the spot, the directors encouraged him to keep improvising. Pratt said he went through about 200 fake band names during the take.[31]

text: Filming[edit]

text: Parks and Recreation faced early production delays because Poehler was pregnant when she signed on; filming had to be postponed until she gave birth.[25][30] Principal photography began on February 18, 2009.[46] The show was filmed in Southern California, and the construction pit featured throughout the season was dug by the episode's producers at an undeveloped property in Van Nuys, a district of Los Angeles. The producers went door-to-door in the neighborhood, seeking residents' permission for the dig.[18] The pit was guarded 24 hours a day,[47] and paparazzi regularly came to the set to take photos of the actors during filming. The exterior of the Pawnee government building, and several of the hallway scenes, were shot at Pasadena City Hall.[18] The parks and recreation department interiors, as well as the Town Hall courtyard, were filmed on a sound stage. The set's windows were outfitted with water systems to simulate falling rain, and the windowsills included fake pigeons.[16][21] Scenes set in playgrounds and elsewhere outdoors were filmed on location in Los Angeles,[18][23] and the public forum scenes in the premiere episode were filmed in one of the city's middle schools.[18]

text:
I love the pace of the show. Since I started doing that single-camera stuff, it takes forever. But [on Parks and Recreation] you guys just light and we go. It's so much fun.
Beth McCarthy-Miller,director[48]

text: Schur said the Parks and Recreation producers approach each episode as if they are filming a real documentary. They typically shoot enough for a 35- or 40-minute episode, then cut it down to 22 minutes, using the best material.[20] Due to the improvisational acting and hand-held camerawork, a great deal of extra footage is shot that must be discarded for the final cut.[16][45] According to Poehler, "For every show, there could probably be a second show of stuff we've edited out."[45] The original cut of the 22-minute pilot was 48 minutes long.[16] The producers film about nine pages of the script each day, a large amount by U.S. television standards.[45]

text: Although the series shares a mockumentary style with The Office, Daniels and Schur sought to establish a slightly different tone in the camerawork of the pilot episode. The one-on-one interviews, for example, sometimes feature two separate camera angles on the same person; the footage is intercut to create the final version of the scene. This technique was inspired by The Five Obstructions, a 2003 experimental documentary directed by Lars Von Trier and Jørgen Leth, which Daniels watched at the suggestion of actor Paul Schneider.[18] Parks and Recreation also makes frequent use of the jump cut technique. For instance, one scene in the pilot episode repeatedly jump cuts between brief clips in which Leslie seeks permission from Ron to pursue the pit project.[18] Early in the season, editor Dean Holland developed a technique that would be used throughout the series. During a scene in "The Reporter" in which Leslie reacts to quotes read to her by the journalist, Poehler improvised a number of jokes, many of which were ultimately going to be cut from the episode. Holland thought they were all funny, so he created a brief montage intercutting several of the lines.[20] The producers sought to lend authenticity to the fictional Pawnee setting by incorporating real-life Indiana elements. They contacted the Bloomington–based Upland Brewing Company and asked for empty beer bottles and labels to be used as background props.[49]

text: The six episodes of the first season aired Thursdays at 8:30 p.m.[4][9] The premiere was shown between two season 5 episodes of The Office: "Dream Team" and "Michael Scott Paper Company".[50] "The Reporter" was originally supposed to be the season's second episode, but the schedule was changed and "Canvassing", originally planned as the third episode, was shown second instead.[51]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Reviews[edit]

text:
Since the show is from the very people who brought you The Office, it's starting to look like a one-trick pony outfit that's gonna keep dressing that horse up in new saddles, hoping that no one will guess it's been around the track so many times, it's worn a ditch in the dirt.
Linda StasiNew York Post[52]

text: The first season of Parks and Recreation started to receive criticism before the premiere episode aired. According to a March 18, 2009, report that was leaked to television journalist Nikki Finke, focus groups responded poorly to a rough-cut version of the pilot.[25][53] Many focus group members felt the show was a "carbon copy" of The Office. Some found it predictable, slow-paced and lacking in character development, and felt the beginning of the episode needed to better explain the setting and plot. Some viewers said the show lacked strong male characters, particularly a "datable" lead. On the other hand, viewers said the show's portrayal of government bureaucracy was "very believable" and had the potential to generate amusing situations. While Poehler's character drew mixed comments, the actress herself was "well liked".[53] The early feedback left many critics and industry observers skeptical about the show's chances of success.[25][52] In response to the leak, Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, said the feedback on rough cuts is usually negative, even with ultimately successful shows.[52] Schur said that the pilot had been completely re-edited at least four times since the focus groups described in the report were held.[33]

text: The first season received generally mixed to negative reviews.[54][55] Many critics said the series was too similar to The Office and its mock documentary style.[nb 1] In particular, several commentators said the naive and well-meaning Leslie Knope character too closely resembled The Office protagonist Michael Scott, the well-intentioned but dimwitted manager of a paper company sales office.[nb 2] Maureen Ryan, television reviewer for the Chicago Tribune, said Parks and Recreation surpassed the Friends spin-off Joey as the "worst example of NBC's tendency to extend its franchises well beyond what is desirable or logical."[58] Daniels said of the comparisons between Leslie Knope and Michael Scott, "My sense is that if we had built 'Parks and Recreation' around a 90-year-old Maasai warrior people would still have said, 'He reminds me of  Michael Scott'. There was just no way to escape it."[25] Poehler acknowledged that there was some validity to the comparisons, but felt that the series overcame them with the production of "Rock Show": "I think it was something we had to work through in the beginning, and I’m kind of hoping we’re on the other side of that and people will start to judge the show on its own, for what it is and realize it’s just a completely different world in a similar style."[59][60]

text: Salon.com writer Jonah Weiner said of the first season, "Each episode wound up more or less the same way, with the humiliation of Poehler's quixotic, adorably doofy bureaucrat".[36] Some critics said the show's characters and overall tone were too mean-spirited in the early episodes.[36][61] While reviewers praised various cast members in individual episodes, some said the supporting characters in general needed to be more fully developed and provided with better material.[62][63] Several wrote that some of the subplots were too predictable and risked becoming stale, such as Leslie's long-standing crush on Mark and the question of whether Andy and Ann would keep dating.[36][64] Others said Leslie was too unintelligent and ditzy.[30][65] Schur said that was not the intention of the writers, and the feedback prompted changes to the character in the second season.[26][30] Years after the first season ended, Schur said he believed much of the early criticism stemmed from the fact that audiences were not yet familiar with the characters, and he believed viewers who revisited the episodes enjoyed them more because they had gotten to know the characters better as the series progressed.[26]

text: Not all reviews were negative. Several commentators said the show had potential, and pointed out that early episodes of The Office had been flat before the series found its footing.[nb 3] The finale, "Rock Show", received the best reviews of the season. Several commentators declared that Parks and Recreation had finally found the right tone both generally and for the Leslie Knope character in particular.[nb 4] Several reviewers, even those who did not enjoy the show, applauded Poehler's comedic abilities and said her talent, timing and likability helped elevate the series above some of its flaws.[nb 5] Reviewers also said they particularly liked Aziz Ansari as Tom Haverford,[nb 6] and Chris Pratt as Andy Dwyer.[nb 7] Some commentators approved of the Pawnee setting as offering a good opportunity to satirize small-town government and politics.[53][76]

text: Parks and Recreation went on to run for seven seasons over the span of six years. Looking back after the show's run concluded, most critics agreed that the first season was the worst of the series.[nb 8] In a 2015 recap of the show's best episodes, Oliver Lyttelton and Jessica Kiang of IndieWire wrote, "Famously, Parks & Rec didn’t come flying out of the gate. It began with an uneven, rushed, truncated first season that saw the writers visibly struggling with how to make Leslie Knope work, and finding it tricky to stand apart from The Office."[79] Nate Jones of Vulture.com, revisiting the first season following the series finale, noted the tone of the series was darker and more cynical, and the characters, particularly Leslie Knope, were not yet clearly defined or developed. Jones wrote: "Like a lot of early comedy episodes, the jokes are fine, but the series' worldview is hard to pin down, and, true to myth, the tone never really coalesces until the finale."[77] In a 2015 article for Forbes, Allen St. John suggests the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike saved Parks and Recreation because it help prompt positive changes to the show: "In season two, the writers turned down the snark and the show immediately improved. Leslie was still overly enthusiastic, but beneath all that energy was a core of competence and good intentions."[82] Ethan Alter, senior writer with Yahoo! Entertainment, suggested the Mark Brendanawicz character was poorly conceived and a major problem for the show during its first season: "From the pilot, it's clear that Schneider is the odd man out in an ensemble that's taking some time to gel anyway."[83] In a 2015 article, Grantland writer Sam Donsky said the first season of Parks and Recreation was his favorite season, though he acknowledged this was a minority opinion. Donsky said he preferred the darker tones, felt the character had more leeway, and preferred the series when it was "not worrying about being likable".[84]

text: Ratings[edit]

text: Parks and Recreation's premiere was seen in 6.77 million households.[4] Media outlets described this as a solid result, comparable to the average Nielsen ratings for 30 Rock, another Thursday-night show on NBC.[4][85] However, viewership declined almost every week over the rest of the season,[25][nb 9] culminating in a season low of 4.25 million households for the final episode.[9] The average first season viewership was 5.45 million households per episode.[nb 10] The Office experienced similarly poor ratings during its first season and later became a success. However, the low viewership presented a greater challenge for Parks and Recreation because NBC now trailed CBS, ABC and Fox in the ratings, and the move of comedian Jay Leno from The Tonight Show to a variety show in NBC's 10 p.m. weeknight slot left less room on the network's primetime schedule.[24]

text: Retta said acting during the first season was stressful because it was unclear how long the show would stay on the air, due to the poor reviews and ratings.[86] Likewise, Chris Pratt said there was a constant feeling among the Parks staff that the show could be canceled at any time: "At the end of season one Parks and Rec, you hug the people really, really fucking tight because you just don't know."[87]

text: DVD release[edit]

text: The first season of Parks and Recreation was released on DVD in the United States on September 8, 2009.[88] The DVD included all six episodes, as well as an "Extended Producer's Cut" of the season finale, "Rock Show". The disc also included cast and crew commentary tracks for each episode, as well as about 30 minutes of deleted scenes.[89]

text: Notes[edit]

text:
Jump up ^ Describing the first season, Denise Martin of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Many critics said the show was needlessly similar to "The Office" – both in its mock documentary format and naive lead.".[25]  Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger  said the season was so similar to The Office it could "very easily be sold" as a spin-off, and that "comparisons between the two shows inevitable".[38] Linda Stasi of the New York Post said, "It is basically the same show simply transported, like one of those houses they put on trailers and take from one place to another."[52] Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club said the similarities to The Office were preventing the show from "establishing its own identity while begging comparison to a far superior comedy".[56] USA Today writer Robert Bianco said that Parks and Recreation was an attempt to "replicate that almost-hit [The Office], from the small-is-stupid tone to the mockumentary visuals".[57]

Jump up ^ Denise Martin of The Los Angeles Times wrote that many critics felt the show was too similar to The Office due to its "naive lead".[25] The Star-Ledger's Alan Sepinwall said the two shows featured "central character[s] ... so similar" that Parks and Recreation "could very easily be sold as" a spin-off.[38] Linda Stasi of The New York Post said The Office and Parks and Recreation have an "identical lead character – the self-important middle manager who has no idea that underlings consider him (or in this case, her) an officious fool".[52] The A.V. Club writer Scott Tobias wrote, "Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knopes is conceived too much like the Michael Scott of petty, inept small-time government", and that Parks and Recreation suffers from the comparison.[56]

Jump up ^ The Star-Ledger's Alan Sepinwall was critical of the Parks and Recreation premiere but said, "it's not a finished product yet", and pointed out, "Don't forget that the American "Office" pilot was one of the worst episodes that show ever made [and] it wasn't until season two that the writers started to get a handle on how to make Michael simultaneously clueless and likable."[38] Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly said Parks and Recreation was "a bit of a letdown" and "doesn't yet have the snap or clear character delineation" of The Office. He continued, "But people forget: The Office seemed a little flat when it premiered in 2005."[60] Brian Howard of The Journal News said, "I still don’t think this show should be airing anywhere on the schedule near The Office because the two are just too alike." However, he added, "Parks and Recreation isn't great — yet. But it’s solid, and I think it has a real chance to be great."[66]

Jump up ^ The Star-Ledger's Alan Sepinwall described "Rock Show" as "by far the strongest episode of that uneven [first season]",[30] and said, "I think they may have found a good tone for both the series as a whole and Leslie in particular."[44] The A.V. Club writer Leonard Pierce wrote, "This show has managed to conquer the first-season learning curve with lightning speed; starting with 'Rock Show' at the end of last season, it got on a roll like poppy seeds."[67] The A.V. Club's Keith Phipps, who had previously been critical of the series, said he was "back on board" after "Rock Show" because, "I felt like this revived the pilot’s feel for small-town life and it made me like Leslie again."[68] The Hollywood Reporter writer Tom Goodman said while the first five episodes of the season had been disappointing, "Rock Show" marked an improvement in which "the characters were more defined, their quirks and rhythms understood".[69]

Jump up ^ USA Today writer Robert Bianco said Parks and Recreation was unoriginal and unentertaining, but said Amy Poehler "makes [Leslie Knope] instantly, innocently appealing."[57] Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times said the supporting cast was weak, but praised Poehler, writing, "The pilot episode isn't perfect, but Ms. Poehler very nearly is".[10] Verne Gay of Newsday said Parks and Recreation was a "near knockoff" of The Office, but added, "Nevertheless, Poehler's still got plenty of appeal here. In time, who knows?"[70] Daniel Carlson of The Hollywood Reporter, who felt the season needed some time to mature, wrote that Poehler was its strongest element and that "she proves instantly she's got the comic intelligence to carry a series like this one".[71]

Jump up ^ Jonah Weiner of Slate.com wrote that season 1's "brightest spot was Aziz Ansari as Leslie's subordinate Tom Haverford."[36] The Star-Ledger's Alan Sepinwall wrote, "Aziz Ansari has the funniest role as Tom Haverford, who's cheerfully lazy, corrupt and eager to laugh at Leslie behind her back".[38] Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said, "The show's funniest character may be Tom".[61] Brian Howard of The Journal News praised Ansari's work, and said, "The guy just needs solid material and the space to let it rip."[66] Mark Ellis of The Sydney Morning Herald described the show as full of "well-drawn characters ... especially jive-talking Indian-American Tom Haverford".[72]

Jump up ^ Reviewing the episode "Boys' Club", The A.V. Club's Keith Phipps praised the performance of Chris Pratt, who he said provided a considerable number of laughs. Phipps also wrote, "If the show sticks around, [the Andy Dwyer character] definitely deserves an upgrade."[73] IGN writer Matt Fowler said of "Rock Show", "The antics on this episode really belonged to Andy."[74] In an Entertainment Weekly article, writer Jeremy Medina made a personal appeal to Greg Daniels and Michael Schur to retain Pratt, credited throughout the season as a guest star, as a regular cast member for the show's second season. He wrote, "Pratt, and his goofball fratboy-past-his-prime charm, dominated the show’s season finale, delivering some of the best moments ever in the fledgling series."[75]

Jump up ^ In 2015, Vulture.com staff writer Nate Jones wrote of the first season: "Popular opinion says that these episodes are among the worst the series ever did, with only the season finale, "Rock Show," approaching the comedic highs the show would later reach. ... In some ways, Parks has been dealing with the legacy of its first season for its entire life."[77] Chris Morgan of Paste wrote, "The first season of Parks and Recreation, by popular consensus, was uneven and indicative of a show trying to find its footing."[78] Oliver Lyttelton and Jessica Kiang of IndieWire said, "Parks went from a slow, hiccuppy first season to a consistently excellent run from its second season on."[79] Jared Whitley of Deseret News said, "Parks and Rec's first season feels a lot like a bad copy of its big brother show: Knope's incompetent bungling felt far too much like The Office's Michael Scott, but the show quickly corrected and made her the anti-Michael."[80] Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Frankly, the entire first season wasn't good. Not good at all. Of the six episodes that aired, a generous soul would count the first five as blandly pointless and the sixth as maybe holding a glimmer of a hope, which really offered no hope of the show returning."[81]

Jump up ^ The Nielsen ratings for the second episode, "Canvassing", dropped to 5.92 million households.[5] The subsequent ratings were 5.24 million households for "The Reporter",[6] 5.29 million for "Boys' Club",[7] 4.64 million for "The Banquet",[8] and 4.25 million for "Rock Show".[9]

Jump up ^ This figure was determined by calculating the average of the number of episodes per season and the total viewership numbers for each episode within that season. These viewership numbers can be found on this page, and all are cited by reliable sources. The calculation came out to 32.11/6 episodes=5.45.


document_title: Laureus World Sports Awards

question_text: who has won the 2017 laureus world sportsman of the year and comeback of the year awards

root

text: Laureus World Sports Awards

text: History[edit]

text:
Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope, where once there was only despair.
Nelson Mandela, 2000[3]

text: South African businessman Johann Rupert, chairman of Richemont, proposed that an organisation be created "based on the principle that sport can bridge the gaps in society and change the way people look at the world."[4]  The organisation, established in 1998 by a partnership of Richemont and Daimler became known as "Laureus", its name being derived from the Greek word for laurel, considered a traditional symbol of victory in athletics.[5]  The first Laureus World Sports Awards ceremony was held two years later, at which the patron, Nelson Mandela, delivered a speech which Edwin Moses has described as "iconic".[6]

tag: p

text: Awards were made in seven regular categories and two discretionary categories at the inaugural ceremony, hosted by the American actors Jeff Bridges and Dylan McDermott.[7]  Two of those awards would later be rescinded: both the American cyclist Lance Armstrong and the American track athlete Marion Jones were found to have used performance-enhancing drugs and had their accolades removed.[8]  The American amputee sprinter Earle Connor's Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Award, which he won in 2004, was also later rescinded.[9]

text: The awards are considered highly prestigious and are frequently referred to as the sporting equivalent of an "Oscar".[10][11][12]  Despite this, the awards have come in for some criticism, particularly in the manner in which athletes are selected for inclusion.[13]

text: Categories[edit]

text: In order to determine the winners of the Awards, the Laureus Nominations Panel, composed of professional sports editors, writers and broadcasters from more than 100 countries, vote to create a shortlist of six nominations in five categories:[14]

text:
Laureus World Sportsman of the Year
Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year
Laureus World Team of the Year
Laureus World Comeback of the Year
Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year

tag: ul

text: The nominees of two categories are chosen by specialist panels:

text:
Laureus Action Sportsperson of the Year
Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability

text: The Laureus World Sports Academy is an association of 65 retired sportspeople who volunteer their time to support the work of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation. They also vote each year to decide the winners of the Laureus World Sports Awards.  As of  2018[update], the chairman of the Academy is New Zealand former rugby player Sean Fitzpatrick.[15]  The members of the Academy select the winners by voting in a secret ballot.[16]

text: One category is voted for by the public:[17]

text: The Laureus Best Sporting Moment of the Year

text: The Academy also makes discretionary awards, including:[17]

text:
Lifetime Achievement Award
Sport for Good Award
Spirit of Sport Award
Exceptional Achievement Award
Sporting Inspiration Award

text: Ceremony[edit]

text: The Laureus World Sports Awards ceremony is held annually at various venues in various locations around the world.  The inaugural ceremony took place at the Sporting Club in Monaco on 25 May 2000.[18]  As of  2018[update], the ceremonies have been held in eleven cities around the world, and are broadcast in at least 160 countries.[19]  Each Laureus World Sports Award winner receives a Cartier Laureus statuette which features a "representation of the striving human form".[19]  The award weighs approximately 2.5 kilograms (5.5 lb) (with 670 grams (24 oz) of solid silver and a 650-gram (23 oz) gold-finish base) and is 30 centimetres (12 in) tall.[19]

text:
Locations of Laureus World Sports Awards ceremonies

Year

Location

Venue

Notes

Ref(s)

2000

 Monaco

Sporting Club

Patron was Nelson Mandela

[7][20]

2001

Grimaldi Forum

Patron was Prince Albert

[21][22]

2002

[23][24]

2003

[25]

2004

 Lisbon, Portugal

Cultural Centre of Belém

Patron was José Manuel Barroso

[26][27]

2005

 Estoril, Portugal

Casino Estoril

[28]

2006

 Barcelona, Spain

Parque del Fórum

[29]

2007

Palau Sant Jordi

Patron was Juan Carlos I of Spain

[30]

2008

 Saint Petersburg, Russia

Mariinsky Theatre

Attended by President Vladimir Putin

[31]

2009

Ceremony cancelled due to world economic crisis; awards presented to winners individually at other events from May to June.

[32]

2010

 Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Emirates Palace

[33]

2011

[34]

2012

 London, United Kingdom

Central Hall Westminster

[35]

2013

 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Theatro Municipal

[36]

2014

 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Istana Budaya

[37]

2015

 Shanghai, China

Shanghai Grand Theatre

[38]

2016

 Berlin, Germany

Palais am Funkturm

[39]

2017

 Monaco

Sporting Club

[40]

2018

[1]

tag: table

text: Winners by category[edit]

text: Regular awards[edit]

text: Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year[edit]

text: Team of the Year[edit]

text: Breakthrough of the Year[edit]

text: Prior to 2007, this award was called Newcomer of the Year.[44][45]

text: Comeback of the Year[edit]

text: Sportsperson with a Disability of the Year[edit]

text: Action Sportsperson of the Year[edit]

text: Prior to 2007, this award was called Alternative Sportsperson of the Year.[44][45]

text: Best Sporting Moment[edit]

text: The Best Sporting Moment Award, inaugurated in 2017, and voted for by the public, was won by the FC Barcelona under-12 (Infantil-B)  side for their sportsmanship in consoling a defeated opposition team.[46]  The 2018 award was won by fans of the Iowa Hawkeyes football team, who at the end of the first quarter of each home game turn toward the children's hospital that overlooks the playing field and wave to patients watching the game.[47][48]

text: Discretionary awards[edit]

text: Since 2000, the Laureus World Sports Awards have included a number of accolades given by the Academy at their discretion.  At the first ceremony in 2000, Brazilian footballer Pelé became the first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, while American Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics was presented with the inaugural Laureus Sport for Good Award.[8]  The first Spirit of Sport award was presented in 2005 to the Boston Red Sox who had won the World Series for the first time in 86 years.[49]  In 2013, American swimmer Michael Phelps became the first recipient of the Exceptional Achievement Award.  As of  2018[update], Chinese tennis player Li Na (2015) and Italian footballer Francesco Totti (2018) are the only other people to be honoured with the award.[47][50]  In 2017, the Refugee Olympic Team, comprising ten athletes from Syria, Congo, Ethiopia and South Sudan, was awarded the first Sporting Inspiration Award.[51]  The following year, the award was presented to the American footballer J. J. Watt whose "exceptional humanitarian efforts" raised more than $37 million for those impacted by Hurricane Harvey.[52]

text: Winners by year[edit]

text: Regular awards[edit]

text:
Key

*

Indicates individual whose award or nomination was later rescinded

N/A

Not awarded

text:
Year

Sportsman

Sportswoman

Team

Breakthrough

Comeback

Disability

Action

Moment

Ref

2000

Tiger Woods

Marion Jones*

Manchester United F.C.

Sergio García

Lance Armstrong*

Louise Sauvage

Shaun Palmer

N/A

[8]

2001

Tiger Woods

Cathy Freeman

France national football team

Marat Safin

Jennifer Capriati

Vinny Lauwers

Mike Horn

N/A

[53]

2002

Michael Schumacher

Jennifer Capriati

Australia national cricket team

Juan Pablo Montoya

Goran Ivanišević

Esther Vergeer

Bob Burnquist

N/A

[54]

2003

Lance Armstrong*

Serena Williams

Brazil national football team

 Yao Ming

Ronaldo

Michael Milton

Dean Potter

N/A

[55]

2004

Michael Schumacher

Annika Sörenstam

England national rugby union team

Michelle Wie

Hermann Maier

Earle Connor*

Layne Beachley

N/A

[9]

2005

Roger Federer

Kelly Holmes

Greece national football team

 Liu Xiang

Alex Zanardi

Chantal Petitclerc

Ellen MacArthur

N/A

[56]

2006

Roger Federer

Janica Kostelić

Renault F1 team

Rafael Nadal

Martina Hingis

Ernst van Dyk

Angelo d'Arrigo

N/A

[44]

2007

Roger Federer

Yelena Isinbayeva

Italy national football team

Amélie Mauresmo

Serena Williams

Martin Braxenthaler

Kelly Slater

N/A

[45]

2008

Roger Federer

Justine Henin

South Africa national rugby union team

Lewis Hamilton

Paula Radcliffe

Esther Vergeer

Shaun White

N/A

[57]

2009

Usain Bolt

Yelena Isinbayeva

China Olympic team

Rebecca Adlington

Vitali Klitschko

Daniel Dias

Kelly Slater

N/A

[58]

2010

Usain Bolt

Serena Williams

Brawn F1 team

Jenson Button

Kim Clijsters

Natalie du Toit

Stephanie Gilmore

N/A

[59]

2011

Rafael Nadal

Lindsey Vonn

Spain national football team

Martin Kaymer

Valentino Rossi

Verena Bentele

Kelly Slater

N/A

[60]

2012

Novak Djokovic

Vivian Cheruiyot

 FC Barcelona

Rory McIlroy

Darren Clarke

Oscar Pistorius

Kelly Slater

N/A

[61]

2013

Usain Bolt

Jessica Ennis

European Ryder Cup team

Andy Murray

Félix Sánchez

Daniel Dias

Felix Baumgartner

N/A

[62]

2014

Sebastian Vettel

Missy Franklin

FC Bayern Munich

Marc Márquez

Rafael Nadal

Marie Bochet

Jamie Bestwick

N/A

[63]

2015

Novak Djokovic

Genzebe Dibaba

Germany national football team

Daniel Ricciardo

Schalk Burger

Tatyana McFadden

Alan Eustace

N/A

[64]

2016

Novak Djokovic

Serena Williams

New Zealand national rugby union team

Jordan Spieth

Dan Carter

Daniel Dias

Jan Frodeno

N/A

[65]

2017

Usain Bolt

Simone Biles

Chicago Cubs

Nico Rosberg

Michael Phelps

Beatrice Vio

Rachel Atherton

FC Barcelona under-12s

[66]

2018

Roger Federer

Serena Williams

Mercedes F1 Team

Sergio García

Roger Federer

Marcel Hug

Armel Le Cléac’h

Iowa Hawkeyes

[47]

text: Discretionary awards[edit]

text:
Key

Indicates posthumous award

N/A

Not awarded

text:
Year

Lifetime

Sport for Good

Spirit of Sport

Exceptional Achievement

Sporting Inspiration

Ref

2000

Pelé

Eunice Kennedy Shriver

N/A

N/A

N/A

[8]

2001

Steve Redgrave

Kip Keino

N/A

N/A

N/A

[53]

2002

Peter Blake

Peter Blake

N/A

N/A

N/A

[54]

2003

Gary Player

Arnold Schwarzenegger

N/A

N/A

N/A

[55]

2004

Arne Næss Jr.

Mathare Youth Sports Association

N/A

N/A

N/A

[9]

India national cricket teamPakistan national cricket team

[9]

2005

N/A

Gerry Storey

Boston Red Sox

N/A

N/A

[56]

2006

Johan Cruyff

Jürgen Griesbeck

Valentino Rossi

N/A

N/A

[44]

2007

Franz Beckenbauer

Luke Dowdney

FC Barcelona

N/A

N/A

[45]

2008

Sergey Bubka

Brendan and Sean Tuohy

Dick Pound

N/A

N/A

[57]

2009

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

[58]

2010

Nawal El Moutawakel

Dikembe Mutombo

N/A

N/A

N/A

[59]

2011

Zinedine Zidane

May El-Khalil

European Ryder Cup team

N/A

N/A

[60]

2012

Bobby Charlton

Raí

N/A

N/A

N/A

[61]

2013

Sebastian Coe

N/A

N/A

Michael Phelps

N/A

[62]

2014

N/A

Magic Bus

Afghanistan national cricket team

N/A

N/A

[63]

2015

N/A

Skateistan

 Yao Ming

 Li Na

N/A

[64]

2016

Niki Lauda

Moving the Goalposts

Johan Cruyff

N/A

N/A

[65]

2017

N/A

Waves for Change

Leicester City F.C.

N/A

Refugee Olympic Team

[66]

2018

Edwin Moses

Active Communities Network

N/A

Francesco Totti

J. J. Watt

[47]


document_title: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

question_text: who owns the rights to little shop of horrors

text: Little Shop of Horrors (film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: A three-girl "Greek chorus"—Crystal, Ronnette, and Chiffon—introduce the movie, warning the audience that some horror is coming their way ("Prologue: Little Shop of Horrors"). Seymour Krelborn (Rick Moranis) and his colleague, Audrey (Ellen Greene), work at Mushnik's Flower Shop in a run-down, rough neighborhood in New York City referred to as "Skid Row". They lament that they cannot escape the neighborhood ("Skid Row (Downtown)"). Struggling from a lack of customers, Mr. Mushnik (Vincent Gardenia) decides to close the store, but Audrey suggests he may have more success by displaying an unusual plant that Seymour owns. Immediately attracting a customer, Seymour explains he bought the plant, which he dubbed "Audrey II", from a Chinese flower shop during a solar eclipse ("Da-Doo"). Attracting business to Mushnik's shop, the plant soon starts dying, worrying Seymour. Accidentally pricking his finger, he then discovers Audrey II needs human blood to thrive ("Grow for Me").

text: Seymour takes Audrey II and is interviewed on the radio, and Audrey misses the broadcast due to being "hand-cuffed a little" by her sadistic, mean-spirited boyfriend Orin Scrivello (Steve Martin). The three girls suggest Audrey dump Orin and get another man to protect her, like Seymour, but Audrey states she doesn't deserve a nice guy. Despite this, Audrey has feelings for Seymour and secretly dreams of running off with him to the suburbs ("Somewhere That's Green"). Audrey II continues to grow rapidly and Seymour becomes a local celebrity ("Some Fun Now"). Seymour soon attempts to ask Audrey out, but she turns him down because she has a date with her boyfriend, revealed to be a dentist ("Dentist!"). After Seymour closes up shop, Audrey II begins to talk to Seymour, demanding more blood than Seymour can give. The plant proposes that Seymour murder someone in exchange for fame and fortune: Seymour initially refuses, but agrees after witnessing Orin beating Audrey ("Feed Me (Get It)").

text: After Orin finishes with his masochistic patient, Arthur Denton (Bill Murray), who requested "a long, slow, root canal", Seymour books an appointment with Orin and arms himself with a revolver; however, he cannot bring himself to use it. Orin, who abuses nitrous oxide, puts on a type of venturi mask to receive a constant flow of the gas. Accidentally breaking an intake valve and unable to remove the mask, Orin begs Seymour for help removing it, but Seymour does nothing. When Orin asks Seymour what he ever did to him, Seymour coldly replies "Nothing, it's what you did to her." Orin dies from asphyxiation and Seymour drags his body back to Audrey II. While dismembering the body to feed to the plant, Seymour is unknowingly witnessed by Mushnik, who flees in fear.

text: After feeding Orin's parts to Audrey II, which has grown to enormous size, Seymour discovers the police investigating Orin's disappearance. Audrey, feeling guilty about wishing Orin would disappear, is comforted by Seymour and the two admit their feelings for each other ("Suddenly, Seymour"). That night, Mushnik confronts Seymour about what he saw and holds Seymour at gunpoint, threatening to report him to the police. Mushnik then changes his mind, saying that since Seymour was "like a son" to him, he'll allow Seymour to leave town, blackmailing him into giving the plant to Mushnik. With no choice, Seymour steadily backs him towards the plant, which swallows Mushnik whole ("Suppertime").

text: Despite widespread success, Seymour worries about Audrey II's growth and unbridled appetite ("The Meek Shall Inherit"). Offered money and a contract for a botany TV show, Seymour plans to escape Skid Row with Audrey using the money, leaving the plant to starve. After Audrey accepts Seymour's marriage proposal, Audrey II catches Seymour leaving and demands another meal: Seymour agrees, but insists on meat from a butcher. While Seymour is gone, the plant telephones Audrey, coaxes her into the shop, and then tries to eat her, in the process revealing to her that he also ate Orin and Mr. Mushnik. Seymour, returning in time to save Audrey, escapes the store with her. Explaining that he fed the plant to become successful and win Audrey's heart, Seymour discovers she has always loved him. Approached by an executive named Patrick Martin (Jim Belushi) from a botanical company, Seymour is offered a contract to breed Audrey II and sell the saplings worldwide. Horrified by the idea, Seymour drives Martin away and realizes he must destroy Audrey II for the sake of humanity.

text: Returning to the shop, Seymour learns that Audrey II is actually an alien from outer space ("Mean Green Mother from Outer Space"). Audrey II traps Seymour and destroys the shop, but Seymour grabs an exposed electrical cable and electrocutes Audrey II. Leaving the destroyed shop, Seymour safely reunites with Audrey. The two wed and move to the suburbs: as they arrive at their new home, which is the one seen in Audrey's daydreams, a smiling Audrey II bud can be seen among the flowers in their front yard.

text: Original ending[edit]

text: During production, director Oz shot a 23-minute ending based on the off-Broadway musical's ending. However, after audiences at the preview screenings did not react positively to it, the ending had to be rewritten and re-shot for the theatrical release with a "happier ending."[3]

text: In the original ending, when Audrey is attacked by the plant, Seymour pulls her from its jaws but is too late to save her, as she is mortally wounded. As she is dying she tells him what the plant said about Orin and Mushnik, and then Seymour confesses that he fed them to the plant. Audrey requests that Seymour feed her to the plant too so that it will live and Seymour can earn the success he deserves ("Somewhere That's Green (Reprise)"). After fulfilling her dying wish, he attempts suicide by jumping off the roof of a building, only to be stopped by Patrick Martin. Martin offers to reproduce and sell Audrey IIs and has already grown a smaller Audrey II from one of the cuttings that he harvested earlier. He also warns Seymour that his consent is not necessary as plants are considered to be in the public domain. Realizing Audrey II is planning global domination, Seymour climbs down from the roof with the resolution to destroy the plant. Returning to the shop, he confronts and tries to kill Audrey II, who tears down the shop, fishes him from the rubble and eats him alive. The plant then spits out Seymour's glasses and laughs victoriously ("Mean Green Mother from Outer Space)".

text: The three chorus girls appear in front of a large American flag and tell how although Audrey II buds became a worldwide consumer craze, the buds grew into an army of monstrous plants who begin to take over the Earth.[4] Giant Audrey II plants are shown destroying cities, toppling buildings, as well as eating people. The United States Army attempts to fight the buds as they ascend the Statue of Liberty and Audrey II eventually bursts through the movie screen and presumably eats the viewers ("Finale (Don't Feed The Plants)").

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Rick Moranis as Seymour Krelborn, a nerdy florist who loves "strange and interesting" plants. He is nice and well-intentioned, but is easily influenced: the plant, Audrey II, tricks him into feeding it humans.
Ellen Greene as Audrey, a kind, shy, friendly, and awkward coworker who is the object of Seymour's affections, but who is dating the sadistic Orin Scrivello.
Vincent Gardenia as Mr. Mushnik, the grumpy, stingy owner of Mushnik's Flower Shop.
Steve Martin as Orin Scrivello, DDS, a sadistic, nitrous oxide-addicted dentist and Audrey's violent, abusive boyfriend.
Levi Stubbs as the voice of Audrey II, an evil and boisterous flytrap-like extraterrestrial plant with plans to take over the planet.
Tichina Arnold, Michelle Weeks, and Tisha Campbell as Crystal, Ronette, and Chiffon, the three mysterious girls who act as a Greek chorus and often provide back-up to the songs throughout the film.
Jim Belushi as Patrick Martin, a Licensing and Marketing executive from World Botanical Enterprises who offers Seymour a proposal to sell Audrey IIs worldwide. Belushi appears in the theatrical release after re-shoots, as actor Paul Dooley (who played Martin in the original ending) was unavailable to reprise his scenes for the re-shoots.
John Candy as Wink Wilkinson, the DJ for WSKID who puts on a radio show about "weird stuff" called "Wink Wilkinson's Weird World".
Christopher Guest as The First Customer, the first customer to enter the flower shop and notice Audrey II.
Bill Murray as Arthur Denton, a hyperactive masochist who visits Orin the dentist for "a long, slow root canal."
Miriam Margolyes as a Dental Nurse, Orin's cynical nurse/secretary who Orin frequently appears to enjoy hurting.
Stanley Jones as the Narrator, whose voice is heard reading the opening words.
Mak Wilson, Danny John-Jules, Danny Cunningham, Gary Palmer, and Paul Swaby as the doo-wop backup singers.
Jim Henson's daughter Heather Henson cameos as one of Orin's patients.
Vincent Wong as the Chinese Florist
Kerry Shale as Life magazine assistant
Audrey II was operated by John Alexander, Anthony Asbury, Don Austen, David Barclay, Michael Barclay, James Barton, Michael Bayliss, Marcus Clarke, Sue Dacre, Graham Fletcher, Brian Henson, Terry Lee, Christopher Leith, Toby Philpott, Mike Quinn, Paul Springer, William Todd-Jones, Ian Tregonnian, Robert Tygner, and Mak Wilson.

text: Musical numbers[edit]

text:
"Prologue: Little Shop of Horrors"– Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal
"Skid Row (Downtown)"– Seymour, Audrey, Mushnik, Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal, Company
"Da-Doo"– Seymour, Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal
"Grow for Me"– Seymour, Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal (off-screen)
"Somewhere That's Green"– Audrey
"Some Fun Now"– Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal
"Dentist!"– Orin, Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal
"Feed Me (Git It)"– Audrey II, Seymour
"Suddenly, Seymour"– Seymour, Audrey, Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal
"Suppertime"– Audrey II, Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal
"The Meek Shall Inherit"– Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal, Company
"Suppertime (Reprise)"– Audrey II, Audrey, Chiffon, Ronette and Crystal (off screen)
"Suddenly, Seymour (Reprise)"– Audrey, Seymour
"Mean Green Mother from Outer Space"– Audrey II, the Pods
"Little Shop of Horrors medley" (end credits)– Company

tag: ol

text:
"Somewhere That's Green (Reprise)"– Audrey, Seymour
"Mean Green Mother from Outer Space"– Audrey II, the Pods
"Finale (Don't Feed the Plants)"– Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal, Company

text: Production[edit]

text: Development[edit]

text: David Geffen was one of the original producers of the off-Broadway show and he began planning to produce a feature film adaptation. Originally Steven Spielberg was to executive produce the film and Martin Scorsese was to direct, but production was stalled when the original film's screenwriter and actor, Charles B. Griffith, filed a lawsuit.[5] Scorsese wanted to shoot the film in 3-D, but plans fell through and Scorsese's first 3-D film would be Hugo 25 years later.[citation needed] John Landis was also attached to the project for a time.[6]

text: Geffen then offered the film to Frank Oz, who was finishing work on The Muppets Take Manhattan around the same time. Oz initially rejected it, but he later had an idea that got him into the cinematic aspect of the project, which he did not figure out before. Oz spent a month and a half to restructure the script which he felt was stage-bound. Geffen and Ashman liked what he had written and decided to go with what he did. Oz was also studying the Off-Broadway show and how it was thematically constructed, all in order to reconstruct it for a feature film.[3]

text: The film differs only slightly from the stage play. The title song is expanded to include an additional verse to allow for more opening credits.[citation needed] The song "Ya Never Know" was re-written into a calypso-style song called "Some Fun Now", although some of the lyrics were retained.[citation needed]  Four other songs ("Closed for Renovation", "Mushnik and Son", "Now (It's Just the Gas)", as well as "Call Back in the Morning") were cut from the original production score. An original song written by Ashman and Menken, "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space", was created for the film.

text: Casting[edit]

text: Greene was not the first choice for the role of Audrey. The studio wanted Cyndi Lauper, who turned it down. Barbra Streisand was also rumored to have been offered the part. Since Greene was the original off-Broadway Audrey, the role was given to her. "She's amazing," Oz said. "I couldn't imagine any other Audrey, really. She nailed that part for years off-Broadway."[3] The character of the masochistic dental patient, Arthur Denton, played in the original film by Jack Nicholson under the name "Wilbur Force", and cut from the stage version, was added back to the story and played by Bill Murray, who improvised all of his dialogue. It supposedly took Steve Martin six weeks to film all his scenes as Orin. He contributed ideas such as socking the nurse in the face (originally he was to knock her out using his gas mask) and ripping off the doll head.

text: Filming[edit]

text: All the scenes were filmed at Pinewood Studios in England, making use of every sound stage there, including the 007 Stage. Oz and his crew did not want to shoot on location as it would tamper with the fantastical mood of the film. Part of the giant 007 stage was used to film the 'Suddenly Seymour' number. But because of its size, the stage was impractical to heat properly and thus caused breath condensation to appear from the actor's lips. This was countered by having Ellen Greene and Rick Moranis put ice cubes in their mouths. This would be the first time Moranis and Martin starred in a film together, and they would later appear together in three more films: Parenthood, My Blue Heaven and L.A. Story.

text: As mentioned, additional sequences and songs from the original off-Broadway show were dropped or re-written in order for the feature version to be paced well. The notable change was for the "Meek Shall Inherit" sequence. As originally filmed, it detailed through a dream sequence Seymour's rising success and the need to keep the plant fed and impress Audrey. In the final cut, the dream sequence and much of the song is cut out. Oz said, "I cut that because I felt it just didn't work and that was before the first preview in San Jose. It was the right choice, it didn't really add value to the entire cut."[3] The full version of the song was included on the film's soundtrack album, as were the songs from the original ending. The sequence was deemed to be lost until in 2012 when it was rediscovered on a VHS workprint that contained alternate and extended takes and sequences.[7]

text: Operating the plant[edit]

text: The film's version of Audrey II was an extremely elaborate creation, using puppets designed by Lyle Conway.

text: While developing the mouth of the plant for the dialogue scenes and musical numbers, Oz, Conway and his crew were struggling to figure out how to make the plant move convincingly. "We kept trying and trying and it didn't work."[8] The solution presented itself while reviewing test footage of the puppet. When the film was run backwards or forward at a faster than normal speed, the footage looked much more convincing and lifelike.  They realized they could film the puppet at a slower speed, making it appear to move faster when played back at normal speed. "By slowing it down it looked it was talking real fast. We then went 'holy cow, look at that. We can do it.'"[8] The frame rate for filming the plant was slowed to 12 or 16 frames per second, depending on the scene, and frequent screen cuts were used to minimize the amount of screen time the puppet spent with human actors, and when interaction was totally necessary, the actors (usually Moranis) would pantomime and lip sync in slow motion.[8] The film was then sped up to the normal 24 frames per second and voices were reinserted in post-production. Levi Stubbs' recordings were run through a harmonizer when slowed down so that they were coherent for Moranis or Ellen Greene.

text: There are no blue screens or opticals involved in any of Audrey II's scenes, with the exception of the reshot ending where the plant is electrocuted, designed by Visual Effects supervisor Bran Ferren, and in some shots during the rampage in the original ending. The plant was made in six different stages of growth and there were three different versions of Mushnik's shop, making it possible for two units to work with different sized plants at the same time. Each of the talking plants had to be cleaned, re-painted and patched up at the end of each shooting day, which would take up to three hours depending on the size.  The "Suppertime" number uses two different sizes of Audrey II. When the plant is singing all alone in the shop, it is actually a smaller size: the same size as when it sang "Feed Me", but now standing on a scaled down set to make it look larger. The full size one that is seen to interact with Seymour and Mushnik was not provided with lip movement, but was built to swallow Mushnik's (mechanical) legs. During Audrey II's final stage of growth, 60 technicians were necessary to operate the one-ton puppet.[9]

text: The finale[edit]

text: Oz and Ashman wanted to retain the ending of the musical where Seymour and Audrey die and the plant succeeds and takes over the city of New York, but Geffen was actually against it. "He said you can't do that," Oz recounts. "But again he knew what Howard and I wanted to do, so he supported us."[3] A special effects team skilled in working with miniatures, and Special Visual Effects team, went to great lengths to create the finale. The model department was supervised by Richard Conway, known for his model work on Flash Gordon and Brazil. "It was all model stuff, that was the brilliant thing. He created the bridge, the buildings, several Audrey IIs and created all of it, all on tabletop. It's all old-fashioned, tabletop animation"[3] [although no stop motion animation was used in the film or in the ending]. The Visual Effects work was supervised by Bran Ferren (Altered States).

text: Reportedly the entire planned climax cost about $5 million to produce, and included elaborate special and visual effects.[citation needed] Oz said in an interview, "this was, I think, the most expensive film Warner Bros. had done at the time."[3] As the film was nearing completion, the excited studio set up a test screening in San Jose. Oz said, "For every musical number, there was applause, they loved it, it was just fantastic...  until Rick and Ellen died, and then the theatre became a refrigerator, an ice box. It was awful and the cards were just awful. You have to have a 55 percent "recommend" to really be released and we got a 13. It was a complete disaster." Oz insisted on setting another test screening in L.A. to see if they would get a different reaction. Geffen agreed to this, but they received the same negative reaction as before.[3] Oz later recounted, "I learned a lesson: in a stage play, you kill the leads and they come out for a bow—in a movie, they don't come out for a bow, they're dead. They're gone and so the audience lost the people they loved, as opposed to the theater audience where they knew the two people who played Audrey and Seymour were still alive. They loved those people, and they hated us for it."[10]

text: Oz and Ashman scrapped Audrey and Seymour's grim deaths and the finale rampage, and Ashman rewrote a happier ending, with Jim Belushi replacing Paul Dooley (who was unavailable for the re-shoot) as Patrick Martin. The musical number "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space" was left mostly intact from the original cut, with new shots of Audrey observing from a window added in. A brief sequence from the "Mean Green Mother" number was also removed in which Seymour fires his revolver at Audrey II, only to discover that the bullets ricochet harmlessly off of the plant. In the happy ending, Audrey II is destroyed and Seymour, Audrey, and humanity survive. This happy ending is made somewhat ambiguous, however, with a final shot of a smiling Audrey II bud in Seymour and Audrey's front yard. Tisha Campbell was unavailable for the final appearance of the chorus girls in the yard and was replaced with a lookalike seen only from the waist down.[8]

text: "We had to do it," Oz recounted. "[and do it] in such a manner that the audience would enjoy the movie. It was very dissatisfying for both of us that we couldn't do what we wanted. So creatively, no, it didn't satisfy us and being true to the story. But we also understood the realities that they couldn't release the movie if we had that ending."[3] "We had to take [the workprint] apart, and we never made a dupe of [the original ending]." At the time, the only copies of it that were made to be viewed were VHS workprint tapes given to few crew members.[11] The scene in which Seymour proposes to Audrey originally contained the reprise of "Suddenly, Seymour". This scene was re-shot and the reprise was placed later in the new ending.[8] In the final theatrical cut, the only miniatures that are retained are the New York City streets passing behind Steve Martin's motorcycle ride at the beginning of "Dentist!"[8] "When we did re-shoot the ending, the crowd reaction went over 50 percent in our favor. Before it was a point where they hated it so much, Warner probably wouldn't even release the movie," Oz said.[11]

text: Release[edit]

text: Box office[edit]

text: Little Shop of Horrors, after a delay needed to complete the revised ending, was released on December 19, 1986 and was anticipated to do strong business over the 1986 holiday season.[12] The film grossed $39 million at the box office,[13] which, from the viewpoint of the studio, was considered an underperformer. However, it became a smash hit upon its home video release in 1987 on VHS and Beta.

text: Critical reception[edit]

text: Rotten Tomatoes retrospectively collected reviews to give it a score of 90% based on reviews from 48 critics, the general consensus states: "Remixing Roger Corman's B-movie by way of the Off-Broadway musical, Little Shop of Horrors offers camp, horror and catchy tunes in equal measure—plus some inspired cameos by the likes of Steve Martin and Bill Murray."[14] On Metacritic, which uses an average of critics' reviews, the film has an 81% rating based on 15 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim" (14 positive reviews, 1 mixed, and no negative).[15] Richard Corliss of Time magazine said, "You can try not liking this adaptation of the Off-Broadway musical hit -- it has no polish and a pushy way with a gag -- but the movie sneaks up on you, about as subtly as Audrey II."[16]

text: In The New York Times, Janet Maslin called it "a full-blown movie musical, and quite a winning one".[17] Roger Ebert said in his review: "All of the wonders of Little Shop of Horrors are accomplished with an offhand, casual charm. This is the kind of movie that cults are made of, and after Little Shop finishes its first run, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it develop as one of those movies that fans want to include in their lives".[18] Oz's friend and Muppet colleague Jim Henson praised the film and said "the lip sync on the plant in that film is just absolutely amazing".[11]

text: Accolades[edit]

text: The film was also nominated for two Academy Awards, one for Best Visual Effects (Lyle Conway, Bran Ferren, Martin Gutteridge), the other for Best Original Song (Alan Menken, Howard Ashman) for Audrey II's new number, "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space". "Mean Green" was the first Oscar-nominated song to contain profanity in the lyrics and thus had to be slightly censored for the show. It's also the first of only two songs sung by a villain to be nominated, the other being "Blame Canada" from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (which also featured profanity). "Mean Green" lost to "Take My Breath Away" from Top Gun. It was also nominated for Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical (losing to Hannah and Her Sisters) and Best Original Score (Miles Goodman) during the 44th Golden Globe Awards. The Score went to Ennio Morricone for The Mission.

text: Home media[edit]

text: Little Shop of Horrors was the first DVD to be recalled for content.[4] In 1998, Warner Bros. released a special edition DVD that contained approximately 23 minutes of unfinished footage from Oz's original ending, although it was in black and white and was missing some sound, visual and special effects.[citation needed] Producer and rights owner David Geffen was not aware of this release until it made it to the stores. Geffen said, "They put out a black-and-white, un-scored, un-dubbed video copy of the original ending that looked like shit." As a result, the studio removed it from shelves in a matter of days and replaced it with a second edition that did not contain the extra material. Geffen wanted to theatrically re-release the film with the original ending intact.[19] Geffen also claimed to have a color copy of the original ending, while the studio had lower quality, black and white duplicates as their own color print was destroyed in a studio fire years earlier. But Geffen had not known, until after the DVD was pulled, that the studio did not know there was a colored copy of the original ending in existence.[3]

text: In November 2011, Oz held a Q&A session at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens during a Henson-themed exhibit. During the talk, he announced that the film would be released as a new special edition with the original ending restored.[20] Warner Bros. reconstructed and restored the ending in an alternate edit, with re-discovered color negatives of the sequence and the help of production notes from Oz and others on the film's creative team. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 9, 2012 with features returning from the original DVD.[21] It was initially subtitled as "The Intended Cut",[22] but changed to "The Director's Cut" once Oz began to support the release. The new edit was screened at the 50th New York Film Festival in the "Masterwork" line-up on September 29, 2012, alongside titles such as Laurence Olivier's Richard III and Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate.[23] Oz worried that the audience would react negatively at the 2012 screening; however, "the audience accepted Audrey and Seymour's deaths with applause and roared in glee during the plant rampage," says Oz.


document_title: Strait of Magellan

question_text: where is the strait of magellan located on a map

text: Strait of Magellan

text: History[edit]

text: Pre-Columbian cultures[edit]

text: This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (August 2013)

text: Discovery by Europeans[edit]

text: Accounts before Magellan[edit]

text: It was reported by António Galvão in 1563 that the position of the Strait of Magellan was previously mentioned in old charts as Dragon's Tail (Draco Cola): [1]

text: he [Pedro] brought a map which had all the circuit of the world described. The Strait of Magellan was called the Dragon's Tail; and there were also the Cape of Good Hope and the coast of Africa. ... Francisco de Sousa Tavares told me that in the year 1528, the Infant D. Fernando showed him a map which had been found in the Cartorio of Alcobaça, which had been made more than 120 years before, the which contained all the navigation of India with the Cape of Good Hope.

text: Magellan[edit]

text: Ferdinand Magellan (Portuguese: Fernão de Magalhães), a Portuguese explorer and navigator in the service of Charles I of Spain, became the first European to navigate the strait in 1520 during his global circumnavigation voyage.

text: On March 22, 1518, the expedition was organized in Valladolid, naming Magellan captain general of the fleet and governor of all the lands discovered, and establishing the privileges of Magellan and his business associate Rui Faleiro. The fleet would become known as the "Armada de las Molucas" or "Fleet of the Moluccas". The expeditionary fleet of five ships set sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda on September 20, 1519.[2]

text: The five ships included La Trinidad (110 tons, crew 55), under the command of Magellan; La San Antonio (120 tons, crew 60) under the command of Juan de Cartagena; La Concepción (90 tons, crew 45) under the command of Gaspar de Quezada (Juan Sebastián Elcano served as boatswain); La Victoria (85 tons, crew 42) under the command of Luis de Mendoza; and La Santiago (75 tons, crew 32), under command of Juan Rodríguez Serrano (João Rodrigues Serrão). Before the passage of the Strait (and after the mutiny in Puerto San Julián), Álvaro de Mesquita became captain of the San Antonio, and Duarte Barbosa of Victoria. Later, Serrão became captain of Concepcion (his Santiago, sent on a mission to find the passage, was caught in a storm and wrecked). San Antonio, charged to explore Magdalen Sound, failed to return to the fleet, instead sailing back to Spain under Estêvão Gomes who imprisoned the captain Mesquita.

text: Magellan's ships entered the strait on November 1, 1520, All Saints' Day, and it was initially called Estrecho de Todos los Santos (Strait of All Saints). Magellan's chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta, called it the Patagonian Strait, and others Victoria Strait, commemorating the first ship entering it.[2][3] Within seven years it was being called Estrecho de Magallanes in honor of Magellan.[2][3] The Spanish Empire and the Captaincy General of Chile used it as the southern boundary of their territory.[citation needed]

text: Other explorers[edit]

text: The first Spanish colony was established in 1584 by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, who founded Nombre de Jesús and Rey Don Felipe on the northern shore of the strait. These towns suffered severe food shortages, and when the English navigator Sir Thomas Cavendish landed at the site of Rey Don Felipe in 1587, he found only ruins of the settlement. He renamed the place Port Famine.

text: Other early explorers included Francis Drake (1578). In February 1696 the first French expedition, under the command of M. de Gennes reached the Strait of Magellan. The expedition is described by the young French explorer, engineer and hydrographer François Froger in his A Relation of a Voyage (1699).

text: The strait was first carefully explored and thoroughly charted by Phillip Parker King, who commanded the British survey vessel HMS Adventure, and in consort with HMS Beagle spent five years surveying the complex coasts around the strait (1826 - 1830). A report on the survey was presented at two meetings of the Geographical Society of London in 1831.[4]

text: Incorporation into Chile[edit]

text: Chile took possession of the Strait of Magellan on May 23, 1843. President Bulnes of Chile ordered this expedition after consulting the Chilean libertador Bernardo O'Higgins (1778-1842), who feared an occupation by Great Britain or France. The first Chilean settlement was Fuerte Bulnes, situated in a forested zone on the north side of the strait. Fuerte Bulnes was later abandoned, and in 1848 the city of Punta Arenas was founded farther north where the Magellanic forests meets the Patagonian plains. In Tierra del Fuego, across the strait from Punta Arenas, the village of Porvenir emerged during the Tierra del Fuego gold rush in the late 19th century.

text: Argentina effectively recognized Chilean sovereignty over the Strait of Magellan in the Boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina. Argentina had previously claimed all of the strait, or at least the eastern third of it.

text: In 1840 the Pacific Steam Navigation Company was the first to use steamships for commercial traffic in the strait.

text: Until the Panama Canal opened in 1914, the Strait of Magellan was the main route for steamships traveling from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. It was often considered the only safe way to move between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, as the Drake Passage separating Cape Horn (the southern tip of South America) from Antarctica is notorious for turbulent and unpredictable weather, and is frequented by icebergs and sea ice. Ships in the strait, protected by Tierra del Fuego to the south and the coast of continental South America to the north crossed with relative ease, and Punta Arenas became a primary refueling port providing coal for steam ships in transit. Sailing ships, however, partly because of variable winds and currents in the strait, generally preferred the Drake Passage, as they had more room to maneuver there.

text: Features[edit]

text: The strait is approximately 570 kilometres (310 nmi; 350 mi) long and about 2 kilometres (1.1 nmi; 1.2 mi) wide at its narrowest point (Carlos III Island, west of Cape Froward).[5] The northwestern portion of the strait is connected with other sheltered waterways via the Smyth Channel. This area is similar to the Inside Passage of Alaska. South of Cape Froward, the principal shipping route follows the Magdalena Channel.

text: The eastern opening is a wide bay on the border of Chile and Argentina between Punta Dúngeness on the mainland and Cabo del Espíritu Santo (Cape of the Holy Spirit) on Tierra del Fuego, the border as defined in the Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1984 between Chile and Argentina. Immediately west are Primera Angostura and Segunda Angostura, narrows formed by two terminal moraines of different ages.[6] The Primera Angostura is the closest approach of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego to the mainland of South America. Farther west lies Magdalena Island, part of Los Pingüinos Natural Monument. The strait's southern boundary in the east follows first the shoreline of the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, then the northern end of the Canal Whiteside and the shoreline of Dawson Island.

text: The western part of the strait leads northwest from the northern end of the Magdalena Channel to the strait's Pacific entrance. This portion of the strait is flanked on the south by Capitán Aracena Island, Clarence Island, Santa Inés Island, Desolación Island (Cabo Pilar) and other smaller islands, and on the north by Brunswick Peninsula, Riesco Island, Muñoz Gamero Peninsula, Manuel Rodriguez Island and other minor islands of the Queen Adelaide Archipelago. Two narrow channels connect the strait with Seno Otway and Seno Skyring. A broader channel, Smyth Channel, leads north from the strait between Muñoz Gamero Peninsula and Manuel Rodriguez Island. Francisco Coloane Coastal and Marine Protected Area, a sanctuary for humpback whales, is located in this area. This part of the strait lies on the elongated Magallanes-Fagnano Fault, which marks a plate boundary between the South American Plate and the Scotia Plate. This fault continues southward under Almirantazgo Fjord and then below Fagnano Lake.[7] Possibly, new tourism industries could be established in the eastern part of the strait for watching southern right whales,[8] as the number of observations in the area has increased in recent years.[9][10]

text: Toponym of the zone[edit]

text: The place names of the zone come from a variety of origins, many from Spanish and English, and from at least one native language, that is adaptations of the Ona language to the Spanish language phonology and spelling[11] like Timaukel (hamlet at the east side of Tierra del Fuego), Carukinka (the end of the Almirantazgo Fjord), Anika (a channel located at 54° 7 S and 70° 30 W) and Arska (the north side of the Dawson Island).

text: Magellan named initially the strait Todos los Santos[12] as he began the voyage through the west on 1 November 1520. Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor renamed it as Estrecho de Magallanes.[citation needed] Magellan named the island on the south side as Tierra del Fuego, which the Yaghan people called Onaisín in the Yaghan language. Magellan also gave the name Patagones (Big Feet) to the mainland Indians, their land was subsequently known as Patagonia.

text: Bahía Cordes is named after the Dutch pirate Baltazar de Cordes[13]

text: Lighthouses in the Strait[edit]

text: The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency lists 41 lighthouses in the waterway. Some of them are more than a century old, and some are declared Monumento Nacional. Among the most impressive lighthouses are the County of Peebles hulk, the world's first four-masted, iron-hulled "full-rig ship", used now as a breakwater for the harbour at Punta Arenas, the San Isidro lighthouse, restored in 2004 and which is now a museum and lodge,[14] and the Evangelistas Lighthouse, located at the western mouth of the Strait and built by George Slight, who wrote on his arrival in 1934:

text: I never imagined seeing something so wild and desolate as those emerging dark rocks in the middle of the raging waves. To see these stormy craggy rocks was frightening. With a dim light on the horizon we could see large waves crashing heavily in the western part of the islands: a vision that hardly anyone can imagine ...[15]

text: Tidal characteristics of the Strait of Magellan[edit]

text: On the Atlantic side, the Strait is characterized by semidiurnal macrotides with mean and spring tide ranges of 7.1 and 9.0 m, respectively. On the Pacific side, tides are mixed, mainly semidiurnal, with mean and spring tide ranges of 1.1 and 1.2 m, respectively.[16]

text: There is enormous tidal energy potential in the Strait.[17]

text: Environment[edit]

text: Around the strait are located[18] (S.P.=Sistema Protegido, protected system) the S.P. Cabo Posesión, S.P. Cabo Espíritu Santo, S.P. San Gregorio, S.P. Estepa Húmeda Kampenaiken Tres Chorrillos, S.P. San Juan, S.P. Reservas Biológicas de Río Cóndor, S.P. Timaukel, S.P. Isla Dawson, S.P. Cabo Froward, S.P. Península Muñoz Gamero, and the B.N.P. (Bienes Nacionales Protegidos) Isla Carlos III, and B.N.P. Islote Rupert.

text: Traffic[edit]

text: As the strait provides a well protected inland water way for safe navigation, sheltered from rough weather and high seas, ships sail through the strait

text:
from Pacific to Atlantic and back,
from the oceans to the Beagle Channel through the route Magdalena, Cockburn Channel, Paso Brecknock or Canal Ocasión, Ballenero Channel, O'Brien Channel, Paso Timbales, northwest arm of the Beagle Channel and the Beagle Channel and back, and also
to cross the strait from north to south and back. This is the case of all traffic between the Chilean and Argentine mainland and the cities in Tierra del Fuego: Porvenir, Cerro Sombrero, Timaukel, Ushuaia and Río Grande

text: 571 Chilean ships and 1,681 non-Chilean ships sailed through the strait in 2008.[19] Piloting is compulsory for sailing the strait.

text: Navigation status[edit]

text: Article 35 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea states that "Nothing in this Part affects: ... (c) the legal regime in straits in which passage is regulated in whole or in part by long-standing international conventions in force specifically relating to such straits". Article V of the Boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina established a legal regime for the Strait of Magellan, and in a diplomatic letter to major shipping nations in 1873 Chile promised freedom of navigation through and neutrality within the strait.[20][21]

text: Gallery[edit]

text:
Strait of Magellan

Barcaza Melinka at Porvenir port, providing daily car ferry service across the Strait of Magellan between Punta Arenas and Porvenir.

The Strait of Magellan at dawn

A true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite image, the entire Strait is visible

U.S. Navy carrier Ronald Reagan in the straits.