title: Emerson College

text: Shortly afterwards, an academic planning committee approved a new course of study for general education requirements. The first level of this program replaced the college-wide requirements with a two-year interdisciplinary course of study and electives. In order to accommodate this new program, the building at 67–69 Brimmer Street was purchased. The Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies was born. A year later in 1972, the college gained authorization to grant BFA, and MFA degrees.


title: Emerson College

text: Though Emerson College has moved to various locations within the city of Boston, the appointment of Allen E. Koenig (the ninth President of Emerson College) almost took the college completely outside of Boston. As soon as he was inaugurated in 1979, Koenig initiated talks with Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts to relocate Emerson and merge the two schools. However, an agreement was never reached and the plan was dropped entirely.


title: Emerson College

text: At the start of the 1980s, Koenig made a proposal to the Board of Trustees for a major renovation of the college's facilities. The plan allowed for new performance spaces, classrooms, and faculty offices at Brimmer Street; remodeling the Library and Learning Resources Center at 150 Beacon; remodeling the 303 Berkeley building for the Humanities and Social Sciences Division; a new radio/audio complex at 126 Beacon; and construction of two new television studios behind 130 Beacon. In 1984, 335 Commonwealth Avenue was purchased for Administration and the Communication Studies department. The college also received the authorization to grant MFA degrees in Creative Writing.


title: Emerson College

text: Despite the newly purchased Commonwealth Avenue buildings, Lawrence, Massachusetts, was soon being discussed as a new location for Emerson College, about away from Boston. The Mayor of Lawrence announced that the necessary land would be taken by eminent domain and sold to Emerson for a token payment of $100. However, the five affected private landowners disagreed with this arrangement and fought the city in court. Three years later in 1988, Judge John Forte ruled in favor of the City of Lawrence. The river-front site in Lawrence was proposed as the new campus for the College. However, as real estate values in Boston dropped and the costs of constructing a new campus increased, the plans were put on hold and eventually abandoned when Koenig resigned as president in 1989. In 1988, the college bought a building at Zero Marlborough Street (also known as 6 Arlington Street) for dormitories and a dining hall.


title: Emerson College

text: John Zacharis became the tenth President of Emerson College and faced a college fractured by the failed move to Lawrence, Massachusetts. Over the course of two years, he worked to restore unity to the campus by purchasing a building at 180 Tremont Street, now called the Ansin Building. This purchase started a transition from Back Bay to the Boston Theater District. Zacharis went on medical leave in 1992 and died of leukemia shortly after.


title: Emerson College

text: During Zacharis's leave, speech pathologist Jacqueline Weis Liebergott was appointed as Acting President and, a year later, inaugurated to become the first female president of the college. Shortly after, she submitted a 10-year master plan to the Boston Redevelopment Authority which involved moving the college to the Washington Street Theatre District.


title: Emerson College

text: In the mid-1990s, a planning document of the college's future plans was drafted and public hearings were held. The college also extended health care benefits to domestic partners of gay and lesbian faculty, administration and staff. Under the plan, dental coverage and tuition waivers were also available. That same year, the college debuted online with a $100,000 gift from Mrs. Mary E. Tufte. Financed by the contribution, The Tufte Lab was placed on the fourth floor of the Ansin Building and dedicated in Mrs. Tufte's honor. The lab was the catalyst for a telecommunications/fiber optic network installation, which was completed in October 1995.


title: Emerson College

text: In addition, the college announced the purchase and restoration of The Little Building (1994) across the street from the Ansin Building and next to Emerson's Majestic Theatre. Restoration was completed on the facades of the college's buildings at 126, 128, 130, 132–134, 168 Beacon Street, and 21 Commonwealth Avenue.


title: Emerson College

text: In 1998, Emerson purchased the Walker Building (Boston) at 120 Boylston. The building currently hosts the school's Department of Television, Radio, Film Production, the Institutional Advancement (Alumni and Development) department, and the Government and Community Relations department. It also contains the school's library and many of its classrooms.


title: Emerson College

text: The Tufte Performance Production Center (PPC) at 10 Boylston Place opened in 2003. The 11-story steel-and-glass building houses the Department of Performing Arts and includes two theaters (The Semel Theatre and The Greene Theatre), two television studios, makeup and costume labs, faculty offices, and an exhibition area. Also that year, the Cutler Majestic Theatre finished renovations and re-opened as one of the main stages of Emerson Stage productions.


title: Emerson College

text: Circa 2001 Emerson adjuncts voted to establish a union and in 2004 ratified its first contract with the college. The Affiliated Faculty of Emerson College, American Association of University Professors (AFEC-AAUP) represents 240 adjunct faculty members at Emerson College as of 2022.


title: Emerson College

text: In 2004, it was announced that the buildings at 96, 100, and 132 Beacon had been sold and would be vacated by the Fall 2006 semester. Construction of a new 14-story residence hall at 150 Boylston Street began in March 2004, and was completed in September 2006. It is the first entirely-new residence hall in Emerson's history. The facility includes residential suites, athletic facilities, offices and meeting rooms for student organizations, informal gathering places for off-campus students, spaces for small-group rehearsals and performances, and dining facilities.


title: Emerson College

text: The school purchased the historic Paramount Theatre (Boston) on Washington Street in 2005, with plans to build a new complex at the site including a 565-seat main stage theater inside the existing Paramount Theater and a 125-seat black box theater in an adjacent new building. Plans also included a 200-seat film screening room, eight rehearsal studios ranging from , six smaller rehearsal spaces, a sound stage for film students, a new scene shop, and a dormitory.


title: Emerson College

text: In May 2006, the Campus Center in the Piano Row building was named the Max Mutchnick Campus Center after a major gift from the 1987 graduate and co-creator of the television sitcom "Will & Grace". In the same year, the school exercised its purchase option on the Colonial Theatre, adjacent to the Little Building, and then converted the upper floors of the building to a 372-bed dormitory. With the addition of dorm space here and at the Paramount Theatre, the school hoped to accommodate up to 75% of its students in on-campus housing by 2010.


title: Emerson College

text: In September 2006, a long-running labor dispute between the administrators and faculty union was resolved. The administration limited the union's role in promotion and tenure, and brought department chairs into administrative roles, where they were not covered by the union. In response, the college agreed not to dismantle the union.


title: Emerson College

text: In September 2007, students in Emerson Alliance for Gays, Lesbians, and Everyone (E.A.G.L.E.) as well as the Student Government Association (S.G.A.) received the gender neutral bathrooms they had pitched to the administration in the spring. In September 2016, every bathroom on Emerson's campus was converted into a gender inclusive restroom.


title: Emerson College

text: On December 2, 2009, President Liebergott announced she would step down in June 2011. On September 8, 2010, the college announced she would be succeeded by M. Lee Pelton of Willamette University.


title: Emerson College

text: On March 18, 2010, the newly renovated Paramount Center officially opened, with Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino illuminating the Paramount's original art deco marquee, which Emerson had restored. In addition to the 590-seat Paramount Theatre, the Paramount Center also houses an experimental black box theater, the Bright Family Screening Room, a sound stage, a scene/prop production shop, nine rehearsal studios, six practice rooms, four classrooms, 20 faculty offices, and a student commons area.


title: Emerson College

text: , two students are suing the college for mishandling their rape cases and failing to provide their Title IX rights.


title: Emerson College

text: In late 2019, Marlboro College announced that it would merge with Emerson at the end of the 2019–20 academic year. Under the agreement, finalized on July 23, 2020, Marlboro gave its endowment to Emerson, which created the Marlboro Institute of Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies. Marlboro students were guaranteed admission and tenure-track faculty were guaranteed teaching positions at Emerson. At that time, Marlboro had approximately 150 students.


title: Emerson College

text: In December 2020, President Lee Pelton announced his planned departure from the college in June 2021 to assume a new role as CEO and President of the Boston Foundation.


title: Emerson College

text: Emerson College's permanent move from the Back Bay to its current location revitalized and preserved the distinct character and profiles of the surrounding neighborhoods, which comprise many significant historic landmarks and structures - the most notable being Boston Public Garden and Boston Common. Presently, the majority of the college's acquired properties were reclaimed, renovated and/or restored without having to introduce new developments into the Downtown core. Abutting the southeast corner of the Boston Common, the 8-acre urban campus at the intersection of Boylston Street and Tremont Street is served by Boylston station on the MBTA Green Line and Chinatown station on the Orange Line. In addition, Emerson College extends its campus outside Massachusetts state, operating in a fourteenth-century castle in the Netherlands and a major academic center on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood for its long-established Los Angeles program.


title: Emerson College

text: Once owned by the Boston Edison Company, the Ansin Building was purchased by Emerson in 1992. The building stands 14 stories high and contains all Visual & Media Arts (VMA) labs and facilities, offices for all VMA and Writing, Literature & Publishing (WLP) departments, and is the home of WERS, WECB, and ETIN (Emerson's Talk and Information Network, an online radio service). It also contains the registrar's office, Tufte and 3D computer labs, Digital Production labs, and the Media Services center.


title: Emerson College

text: The former Union Bank building at 216 Tremont Street houses the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and the in-house clinic, The Robbins Speech, Language and Hearing Center. Also located here are the offices of Student Financial Services, Health Services, Career Services, the Counseling Center and the International Student Center. The Bill Bordy Theater and Auditorium on the ground floor is used for lectures, performances, performance classes and special events.


title: Emerson College

text: Provides classrooms, study rooms, offices to various non-academic and academic departments, five computer labs, and the Iwasaki Library. The fifth and sixth floors connect to the Tufte building.


title: Emerson College

text: Computer labs: Advanced Projects Lab (APL), Advanced Teaching Lab (ATL), Communication & Marketing Labs (CML) 1, 2, and Journalism Lab (JRL)


title: Emerson College

text: One of the sets of popular NBC sitcom "Will & Grace" (1998–2006, 2017–2020), donated by Emerson alumnus Max Mutchnick, was displayed in the Iwasaki Library. The set, Will and Grace's living room and kitchen, remained in the library until 2013, when it was moved to Emerson's Los Angeles campus.


title: Emerson College

text: The 11-story building is home to two television studios, two performing art theaters, the Huret and Spector Gallery, set and costume studios, classrooms, and the offices of the Department of Performing Arts. The fifth and sixth floors of the building are connected to the Walker Building.


title: Emerson College

text: Performance theaters and facilities: Semel Theatre, The Kermit and Elinore Greene Theater, The Bobbi Brown and Steven Plofker Design Technology and Makeup Studio


title: Emerson College

text: The Cutler Majestic Theatre is home to Emerson Stage productions each year, various speaking events, Open House, and the EVVY Awards, Emerson's own award show and the largest student-run live television production in the country.


title: Emerson College

text: Opening in 1932 as a movie theatre seating 1,700, the Paramount Center was one of the first movie houses in Boston to play talking motion pictures. In 2005, Emerson College announced plans to renovate the Paramount Theatre, building an entire performing arts facility in and around the theatre. The renovated Paramount Center was designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects of Boston and built by Bond Brothers, and completed in 2010.


title: Emerson College

text: The project included not only renovating the Paramount Theatre into a 550-seat theater, but building both a new Performance Development Center and a new residence hall for the school on the 6th through 9th floors of the building. The complex features the 120-seat Liebergott Black Box Theatre, the 174-seat Bright Family Screening Room, nine rehearsal studios ranging from , five practice rooms for individuals and small groups, a sound stage for film production classes, a scene shop, several classrooms, a restaurant, and Emerson faculty and staff offices.


title: Emerson College

text: Emerson College purchased the building in 1994 and converted it into a 750-bed dormitory, which opened in September 1995. In 2016, the college unveiled plans to do a complete renovation of the Little Building, which would replace and restore the building's façade and add an additional floor behind the parapet on the top of the building, adding approximately 300 beds. The renovated dorm opened for the Fall 2019 semester and now houses up to 1,035 residents.


title: Emerson College

text: 2 Boylston Place is the most recent addition to the campus, It opened in 2017, and contains an 18-story residence hall that houses approximately 375 students.


title: Emerson College

text: Situated on Sunset Boulevard (at Gordon St) in Hollywood, ELA building is a permanent home to Emerson's decades-old Los Angeles program. The international design firm Morphosis, headed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Thom Mayne, designed a signature building incorporating residential, teaching and administrative spaces. The 10-story building was opened for the college's winter semester in 2014. The new facility accommodates 217 students, approximately twice the number of students that were supported by Emerson's older facility in Burbank. The center allows undergraduate students to spend a full fall, spring or summer semester taking classes in Hollywood and participating in a semester-long internship at enterprises related to their field of study. In addition, ELA also offers professional training and workplace education for Los Angeles-area professionals who are not enrolled in the college degree programs.


title: Emerson College

text: Emerson College owns and operates Kasteel Well in the rural province of Limburg, Netherlands, a national historical monument that provides living accommodations, classrooms, a resource center, and related facilities. Approximately 85 matriculated Emerson students attend the program each semester, and are chosen through a lottery-style system. Classes are taught by Dutch teachers, with several Belgian and other teachers from Europe on staff.


title: Emerson College

text: The Max Mutchnick Campus Center and the Bobbi Brown and Steven Plofker Gymnasium are important campus buildings. The former features several conference, meeting, and rehearsal spaces open to all students, offices for Student Life and the Student Government Association, and storage for any student organization. Also housing new offices for the Athletics Department, it is Emerson College's first-ever indoor athletic facility. The construction of the gym was controversial at the time of its announcement, considering the lack of performing space on campus and the lack of enthusiasm around athletics at Emerson.


title: Emerson College

text: Emerson College is divided into two schools (School of Communication and School of the Arts) and eight departments (Marketing Communication; Communication Studies; Journalism; Communication Sciences & Disorders; Performing Arts; Writing, Literature & Publishing; Visual & Media Arts; Liberal Arts & Interdisciplinary Studies) offering 31 undergraduate majors and 19 minors (Bachelor of Arts/Fine Arts, or Science), and 12 graduate degree programs (Master of Arts/Fine Arts, or Science). Though the college's programs are primarily focused on communications and the arts, the curriculum is delivered through a liberal arts and sciences education model, where students are required to take courses from other academic disciplines and also have the opportunity to declare a minor outside their major.


title: Emerson College

text: Emerson College is ranked by "U.S. News & World Report" in the Regional Universities North category. In 2021, it is ranked tied for 8th best overall, tied for 3rd in the Most Innovative Schools category, tied for 11th in Best Undergraduate Teaching, and 50th in the Best Value Schools category.


title: Emerson College

text: In 2018, Emerson admitted 36% of applicants, and is ranked 6th in the Universities-Master's (North) category according to "U.S. News & World Report". There are 3,871 undergraduate and 1,048 graduate students as of 2019. Tuition for the 2018–2019 academic year is $46,016 for a full-time student; approximately 76% of students receive financial assistance in scholarships and grants, low-interest loans and part-time employment.


title: Emerson College

text: Emerson College has an extensive film program that is one of the largest in the United States. In 2008/2009, it awarded 368 degrees in Film, Radio, and Television. In July 2014, Emerson's Visual and Media Arts program was rated #9 in the nation by "The Hollywood Reporter".


title: Emerson College

text: The College offers undergraduate programs in Marketing Communications (BS) and Business of Creative Enterprises (BA). Emerson's Department of Marketing Communication has on-campus graduate degrees in Integrated Marketing Communication and Global Marketing Communication & Advertising, as well as online degree in Digital Marketing and Data Analytics. Starting in the 2018–19 academic year, the GMCA and IMC programs were merged into a single MA program in Strategic Marketing Communication.


title: Emerson College

text: In 2014 Emerson was named #5 on the list of top 10 U.S. colleges to get a marketing degree published by "USA Today". It was ranked #14 of 47 in 2018 Best Master's of Marketing Programs ranking by TFE Times, and #15 of 416 in 2019 Best Marketing Colleges in the U.S. ranking by College Factual.


title: Emerson College

text: The Engagement Game Lab is an applied research lab at Emerson College devoted to getting people involved with civic engagement in innovative ways and studying citizenship in a digital era. It is facilitated by professionals, but also has student assistants and offers its resources to students.


title: Emerson College

text: The college is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (Division III), the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC), and the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC). Emerson previously competed as a charter member of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) from 1995 to 2013. The college was also a charter member of the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC), which it competed in from 1984 to 1989. The athletics department has men's and women's lacrosse, tennis, basketball, cross country running, golf, volleyball and soccer teams, in addition to a women's softball team and a men's baseball team.


title: Emerson College

text: The women's softball team defeated Western New England College in 2007 to clinch the GNAC championship and earn the department's first appearance in the NCAA tournament. In 2012, Emerson's women's volleyball team defeated Rivier to become the 2012 GNAC Champions. In 2019, the men's basketball team won its first NEWMAC title in program history.


title: Emerson College

text: Emerson College offers a large number of organizations, most of which are highly active and diverse ranging from curriculum-based activities to social action organizations. Organizations are either maintained by the Student Government Association (if the organizations are student-led) or by campus departments (if the organizations are managed by faculty or staff).


title: Emerson College

text: The largest student run, multi-camera, production in the nation, the EVVY Awards are Emerson College's annual award show. Judged by industry professionals, The EVVYs recognize Emerson student's achievements in their chosen discipline. Each May the show is broadcast live from the Cutler Majestic Theatre. Over 500 students are annually involved with the EVVY Awards. The organization is run entirely by Emerson students, and advised by staff members.


title: Emerson College

text: The 31st and 33rd Annual EVVY Awards won the College Television Award for Alternative/Variety programming.


title: Emerson College

text: The Emerson Channel is Emerson College's award-winning television station. The channel was created in 1999 under the Television, Radio, and Film Department. The organization is managed by a full-time staff member, and is run by Emerson College Students. Student works regularly receive collegiate EVVY awards.


title: Emerson College

text: EIV was founded in 1975 and is Emerson's largest entirely student run organization. EIV funds and assists in the production of live news, teleplays, single camera narratives, and other shows selected by the student management board from proposals made by fellow students at the end of each semester. EIV is known for their Emmy and AP Award-winning show, "EIV News at 9p", as well as their pre-taped Evening News broadcast.


title: Emerson College

text: "Emertainment Monthly" is Emerson College's official entertainment magazine. Modeled after professional entertainment journalism outlets like "Entertainment Weekly", "Emertainment Monthly" has been nominated for several EVVY Awards and participates in major entertainment events as official members of the press. "Emertainment Monthly" received the title of Best in Show in the "Website Small School" Category by the Associated Collegiate Press in 2015.


title: Emerson College

text: "The Berkeley Beacon" is Emerson's student-run, weekly print newspaper. In 2012, it became the first collegiate newspaper website with a responsive design. It received the titles of Best in Show in the "Four-Year Weekly" and "Website Small School" categories by the Associated Collegiate Press in 2015.


title: Emerson College

text: Dance plays a large role in the student culture at Emerson College. In the fall of 2007 Emerson student, Michael Lupacchino ('10), re-founded the Emerson Dance Company—an SGA recognized, inclusive organization focused on bringing an open outlet for dance to students of all levels, years, and majors at the college. The company holds bi-annual showcases at the end of every semester highlighting student dancers and choreographers, all of whom have auditioned at the start of every semester and applied to choreograph through a selection process run by the company's executive board.


title: Emerson College

text: Emerson Dance Company (commonly referred to as EDC) also offers master classes, workshops, and events which are open to the entire Emerson community. In addition to participating in internal college activities, the group also engages in community service around the Boston area. The organization is actively involved with its alumni (inviting one back each semester to choreograph an alumni piece), as well as fellow college and professional level dance organizations around the Boston area (i.e. The Boston Ballet, Suffolk Dance, Northeastern Dance Company {NUDANCO}, and Urbanity Dance). The company has been advised by Senior Dancer-In-Residence in the college's Performing Arts Department, Marlena Yannetti, since its inception. Emerson Dance Company hosts its showcases in Emerson's state of the art theatres, including the newly renovated Paramount Center Mainstage.


title: Emerson College

text: WECB is the campus student run radio station, overseen by a faculty advisor. WECB broadcasts online at its website and on closed-circuit campus television (channel 56).


title: Emerson College

text: In 1983–84, WECB was scheduled for demolition without reconstruction, as part of the Mass Communications $1.6M renovation project. Carol Kamerschen, Greg Weremey, Barry Scott and Russ Weisenbacher were instrumental in fighting the board of trustees, and convincing them to allow Weremey and Weisenbacher to design and build new studios at 126 Beacon Street, replacing the former facilities at 130 Beacon Street, 4th floor.


title: Emerson College

text: ETIN (Emerson's Talk and Information Network), an online talk radio service run by students, is also housed in the same space as WERS and WECB.


title: Emerson College

text: The college has a long tradition in the comedy community, including student groups specializing in various combinations of sketch comedy, improvisation, and short films. There are twelve recognized comedy organizations: Emerson Comedy Workshop, Chocolate Cake City, Inside Joke, Jimmy's Traveling All-Stars, Derbyn Comedy, This is Pathetic, Stroopwafel, SwoMo Comedy, The Girlie Project, A Goose Troupe, Stand-Up in the Park, and Flawed Comedy. Several comedy classes, including "Comedy Writing for Television," "Intermediate Creative Writing: Comedy," and "Comedy Writers' Room" are a regular part of the curriculum. In September 2016, the college began offering a B.F.A. in Comedic Arts, claiming it to be "the first degree of its kind in the country."


title: Emerson College

text: The Emerson College Comedy Scholarship is offered each year to one rising senior who has "demonstrated leadership and talent in the writing, performance, or direction of comedy." The college is also home to the American Comedy Archives, established in 2005 to "acquire, preserve and make available primary source material that documents the professional activities of the ground breaking individuals who have written, produced or performed comedy for radio, television, motion pictures or live performance".


title: The Banker (2020 film)

text: The Banker is a 2020 American period drama film directed, co-written and produced by George Nolfi. The film stars Anthony Mackie, Nicholas Hoult, Nia Long, Jessie T. Usher and Samuel L. Jackson. The story follows Joe Morris (Jackson) and Bernard Garrett (Mackie), two of the first African-American bankers in the United States.


title: The Banker (2020 film)

text: In 1954, Bernard Garrett wants to get into real estate but encounters racism that prevents him from being a successful real estate investor. After a chance encounter with wealthy club owner Joe Morris, he convinces Joe to be his co-investor. Together they convince Matt Steiner, a white man, to pose as the front of the company in meetings to facilitate the sales. Eventually, they become extremely successful in Los Angeles real estate, with the two teaching Matt the basics of real estate investing. The three secure a number of properties in L.A. and effectively integrate a number of previously segregated neighborhoods by selling and renting to black families. After this success, he sets his sights on the local bank in his Texas hometown to give loans to the black residents. Racist bank practices had excluded black people from receiving loans for small businesses and homeownership. Joe protests the idea at first but eventually relents and the three move to Texas.


title: The Banker (2020 film)

text: Matt buys the bank, fronting for Bernard and Joe, but the local townspeople are extremely suspicious of this move. A bank executive tracks the records of the loans and discovers that they're giving loans to black people, follows Matt and discovers that his partners are black, then threatens them with exposure which would cause "a run on the bank." Matt persuades Joe and Bernard to purchase a second bank and put him in charge of it despite his inexperience. The racist bank executive calls in a federal investigator who checks the records of Matt's bank and discovers numerous infractions attributable to Matt's carelessness. Matt, Bernard and Joe get arrested for violating federal banking laws.


title: The Banker (2020 film)

text: Facing a 50-year prison term, Matt takes a plea deal, falsely testifying that he was duped by Bernard and Joe. The next day, Bernard testifies passionately about black people being given the same opportunity for upward mobility as whites. He and Joe are convicted and serve time in prison; upon release, they go with Bernard's wife Eunice to live in the Bahamas in two homes which Matt had purchased for them with money Bernard had entrusted to him for that purpose the night before Bernard's testimony.


title: The Banker (2020 film)

text: It was announced in October 2018 that George Nolfi would direct the film, which he co-wrote with Niceole Levy. Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Mackie, Nicholas Hoult, Nia Long and Taylor Black were set to star, with filming beginning in Atlanta. The film was partially shot in Douglasville, Georgia and Newnan, Georgia. Additional casting was announced in November. The film's early apartment scenes were filmed at La Madre Arms apartments in Atlanta, GA.


title: The Banker (2020 film)

text: In July 2019, Apple TV+ acquired distribution rights to the film. It was set to have its world premiere at AFI Fest on November 21, 2019, followed by a limited theatrical release on December 6, 2019, and digital streaming in January 2020. However, after claims of sexual assault were made against one of the producers of the film, Bernard Garrett's son Bernie Jr., by his half-sisters, the premiere was cancelled and the film was pulled from the schedule.


title: The Banker (2020 film)

text: Bernie Jr's half-sisters also accused the filmmakers of writing their mother, Linda, out of the movie. He denies the claims of sexual assault, citing a family conflict surrounding Linda's infidelity and subsequent separation from his father, and the filmmakers maintain that the account of events depicted in the film are the result of independent research and not Bernie Jr's recollection.


title: The Banker (2020 film)

text: The film was eventually released in a limited theatrical release on March 6, 2020, followed by digital streaming on March 20, 2020.


title: The Banker (2020 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of with an average score of , based on reviews. The site's critical consensus reads: ""The Banker"s timid approach to dramatizing its fact-based story is often outweighed by the trio of strong performances at its core." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 59 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Paleontology

text: Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossils to classify organisms and study their interactions with each other and their environments (their paleoecology). Paleontological observations have been documented as far back as the 5th century BC. The science became established in the 18th century as a result of Georges Cuvier's work on comparative anatomy, and developed rapidly in the 19th century. The term itself originates from Greek (, "old, ancient"), (, (gen. ), "being, creature"), and (, "speech, thought, study").


title: Paleontology

text: Paleontology lies on the border between biology and geology, but differs from archaeology in that it excludes the study of anatomically modern humans. It now uses techniques drawn from a wide range of sciences, including biochemistry, mathematics, and engineering. Use of all these techniques has enabled paleontologists to discover much of the evolutionary history of life, almost all the way back to when Earth became capable of supporting life, nearly 4 billion years ago. As knowledge has increased, paleontology has developed specialised sub-divisions, some of which focus on different types of fossil organisms while others study ecology and environmental history, such as ancient climates.


title: Paleontology

text: Body fossils and trace fossils are the principal types of evidence about ancient life, and geochemical evidence has helped to decipher the evolution of life before there were organisms large enough to leave body fossils. Estimating the dates of these remains is essential but difficult: sometimes adjacent rock layers allow radiometric dating, which provides absolute dates that are accurate to within 0.5%, but more often paleontologists have to rely on relative dating by solving the "jigsaw puzzles" of biostratigraphy (arrangement of rock layers from youngest to oldest). Classifying ancient organisms is also difficult, as many do not fit well into the Linnaean taxonomy classifying living organisms, and paleontologists more often use cladistics to draw up evolutionary "family trees". The final quarter of the 20th century saw the development of molecular phylogenetics, which investigates how closely organisms are related by measuring the similarity of the DNA in their genomes. Molecular phylogenetics has also been used to estimate the dates when species diverged, but there is controversy about the reliability of the molecular clock on which such estimates depend.


title: Paleontology

text: The simplest definition of "paleontology" is "the study of ancient life". The field seeks information about several aspects of past organisms: "their identity and origin, their environment and evolution, and what they can tell us about the Earth's organic and inorganic past".


title: Paleontology

text: William Whewell (1794–1866) classified paleontology as one of the historical sciences, along with archaeology, geology, astronomy, cosmology, philology and history itself: paleontology aims to describe phenomena of the past and to reconstruct their causes. Hence it has three main elements: description of past phenomena; developing a general theory about the causes of various types of change; and applying those theories to specific facts.


title: Paleontology

text: When trying to explain the past, paleontologists and other historical scientists often construct a set of one or more hypotheses about the causes and then look for a "smoking gun", a piece of evidence that strongly accords with one hypothesis over any others.


title: Paleontology

text: Sometimes researchers discover a "smoking gun" by a fortunate accident during other research. For example, the 1980 discovery by Luis and Walter Alvarez of iridium, a mainly extraterrestrial metal, in the Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary layer made asteroid impact the most favored explanation for the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event – although debate continues about the contribution of volcanism.


title: Paleontology

text: is often said to work by conducting experiments to "disprove" hypotheses about the workings and causes of natural phenomena. This approach cannot prove a hypothesis, since some later experiment may disprove it, but the accumulation of failures to disprove is often compelling evidence in favor. However, when confronted with totally unexpected phenomena, such as the first evidence for invisible radiation, experimental scientists often use the same approach as historical scientists: construct a set of hypotheses about the causes and then look for a "smoking gun".


title: Paleontology

text: Paleontology lies between biology and geology since it focuses on the record of past life, but its main source of evidence is fossils in rocks. For historical reasons, paleontology is part of the geology department at many universities: in the 19th and early 20th centuries, geology departments found fossil evidence important for dating rocks, while biology departments showed little interest.


title: Paleontology

text: Paleontology also has some overlap with archaeology, which primarily works with objects made by humans and with human remains, while paleontologists are interested in the characteristics and evolution of humans as a species. When dealing with evidence about humans, archaeologists and paleontologists may work together – for example paleontologists might identify animal or plant fossils around an archaeological site, to discover the people who lived there, and what they ate; or they might analyze the climate at the time of habitation.


title: Paleontology

text: In addition, paleontology often borrows techniques from other sciences, including biology, osteology, ecology, chemistry, physics and mathematics. For example, geochemical signatures from rocks may help to discover when life first arose on Earth, and analyses of carbon isotope ratios may help to identify climate changes and even to explain major transitions such as the Permian–Triassic extinction event. A relatively recent discipline, molecular phylogenetics, compares the DNA and RNA of modern organisms to re-construct the "family trees" of their evolutionary ancestors. It has also been used to estimate the dates of important evolutionary developments, although this approach is controversial because of doubts about the reliability of the "molecular clock". Techniques from engineering have been used to analyse how the bodies of ancient organisms might have worked, for example the running speed and bite strength of "Tyrannosaurus," or the flight mechanics of "Microraptor". It is relatively commonplace to study the internal details of fossils using X-ray microtomography. Paleontology, biology, archaeology, and paleoneurobiology combine to study endocranial casts (endocasts) of species related to humans to clarify the evolution of the human brain.


title: Paleontology

text: Paleontology even contributes to astrobiology, the investigation of possible life on other planets, by developing models of how life may have arisen and by providing techniques for detecting evidence of life.


title: Paleontology

text: As knowledge has increased, paleontology has developed specialised subdivisions. Vertebrate paleontology concentrates on fossils from the earliest fish to the immediate ancestors of modern mammals. Invertebrate paleontology deals with fossils such as molluscs, arthropods, annelid worms and echinoderms. Paleobotany studies fossil plants, algae, and fungi. Palynology, the study of pollen and spores produced by land plants and protists, straddles paleontology and botany, as it deals with both living and fossil organisms. Micropaleontology deals with microscopic fossil organisms of all kinds.


title: Paleontology

text: Instead of focusing on individual organisms, paleoecology examines the interactions between different ancient organisms, such as their food chains, and the two-way interactions with their environments.  For example, the development of oxygenic photosynthesis by bacteria caused the oxygenation of the atmosphere and hugely increased the productivity and diversity of ecosystems. Together, these led to the evolution of complex eukaryotic cells, from which all multicellular organisms are built.


title: Paleontology

text: Paleoclimatology, although sometimes treated as part of paleoecology, focuses more on the history of Earth's climate and the mechanisms that have changed it – which have sometimes included evolutionary developments, for example the rapid expansion of land plants in the Devonian period removed more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, reducing the greenhouse effect and thus helping to cause an ice age in the Carboniferous period.


title: Paleontology

text: Biostratigraphy, the use of fossils to work out the chronological order in which rocks were formed, is useful to both paleontologists and geologists. Biogeography studies the spatial distribution of organisms, and is also linked to geology, which explains how Earth's geography has changed over time.


title: Paleontology

text: Fossils of organisms' bodies are usually the most informative type of evidence. The most common types are wood, bones, and shells. Fossilisation is a rare event, and most fossils are destroyed by erosion or metamorphism before they can be observed. Hence the fossil record is very incomplete, increasingly so further back in time. Despite this, it is often adequate to illustrate the broader patterns of life's history. There are also biases in the fossil record: different environments are more favorable to the preservation of different types of organism or parts of organisms. Further, only the parts of organisms that were already mineralised are usually preserved, such as the shells of molluscs. Since most animal species are soft-bodied, they decay before they can become fossilised. As a result, although there are 30-plus phyla of living animals, two-thirds have never been found as fossils.


title: Paleontology

text: Occasionally, unusual environments may preserve soft tissues. These lagerstätten allow paleontologists to examine the internal anatomy of animals that in other sediments are represented only by shells, spines, claws, etc. – if they are preserved at all. However, even lagerstätten present an incomplete picture of life at the time. The majority of organisms living at the time are probably not represented because lagerstätten are restricted to a narrow range of environments, e.g. where soft-bodied organisms can be preserved very quickly by events such as mudslides; and the exceptional events that cause quick burial make it difficult to study the normal environments of the animals. The sparseness of the fossil record means that organisms are expected to exist long before and after they are found in the fossil record – this is known as the Signor–Lipps effect.


title: Paleontology

text: Trace fossils consist mainly of tracks and burrows, but also include coprolites (fossil feces) and marks left by feeding. Trace fossils are particularly significant because they represent a data source that is not limited to animals with easily fossilised hard parts, and they reflect organisms' behaviours. Also many traces date from significantly earlier than the body fossils of animals that are thought to have been capable of making them. Whilst exact assignment of trace fossils to their makers is generally impossible, traces may for example provide the earliest physical evidence of the appearance of moderately complex animals (comparable to earthworms).


title: Paleontology

text: Geochemical observations may help to deduce the global level of biological activity at a certain period, or the affinity of certain fossils. For example, geochemical features of rocks may reveal when life first arose on Earth, and may provide evidence of the presence of eukaryotic cells, the type from which all multicellular organisms are built. Analyses of carbon isotope ratios may help to explain major transitions such as the Permian–Triassic extinction event.


title: Paleontology

text: Naming groups of organisms in a way that is clear and widely agreed is important, as some disputes in paleontology have been based just on misunderstandings over names. Linnaean taxonomy is commonly used for classifying living organisms, but runs into difficulties when dealing with newly discovered organisms that are significantly different from known ones. For example: it is hard to decide at what level to place a new higher-level grouping, e.g. genus or family or order; this is important since the Linnaean rules for naming groups are tied to their levels, and hence if a group is moved to a different level it must be renamed.


title: Paleontology

text: Paleontologists generally use approaches based on cladistics, a technique for working out the evolutionary "family tree" of a set of organisms. It works by the logic that, if groups B and C have more similarities to each other than either has to group A, then B and C are more closely related to each other than either is to A. Characters that are compared may be anatomical, such as the presence of a notochord, or molecular, by comparing sequences of DNA or proteins. The result of a successful analysis is a hierarchy of clades – groups that share a common ancestor. Ideally the "family tree" has only two branches leading from each node ("junction"), but sometimes there is too little information to achieve this, and paleontologists have to make do with junctions that have several branches. The cladistic technique is sometimes fallible, as some features, such as wings or camera eyes, evolved more than once, convergently – this must be taken into account in analyses.


title: Paleontology

text: Evolutionary developmental biology, commonly abbreviated to "Evo Devo", also helps paleontologists to produce "family trees", and understand fossils. For example, the embryological development of some modern brachiopods suggests that brachiopods may be descendants of the halkieriids, which became extinct in the Cambrian period.


title: Paleontology

text: Paleontology seeks to map out how living things have changed through time. A substantial hurdle to this aim is the difficulty of working out how old fossils are. Beds that preserve fossils typically lack the radioactive elements needed for radiometric dating. This technique is our only means of giving rocks greater than about 50 million years old an absolute age, and can be accurate to within 0.5% or better. Although radiometric dating requires very careful laboratory work, its basic principle is simple: the rates at which various radioactive elements decay are known, and so the ratio of the radioactive element to the element into which it decays shows how long ago the radioactive element was incorporated into the rock. Radioactive elements are common only in rocks with a volcanic origin, and so the only fossil-bearing rocks that can be dated radiometrically are a few volcanic ash layers.


title: Paleontology

text: Consequently, paleontologists must usually rely on stratigraphy to date fossils. Stratigraphy is the science of deciphering the "layer-cake" that is the sedimentary record, and has been compared to a jigsaw puzzle. Rocks normally form relatively horizontal layers, with each layer younger than the one underneath it. If a fossil is found between two layers whose ages are known, the fossil's age must lie between the two known ages. Because rock sequences are not continuous, but may be broken up by faults or periods of erosion, it is very difficult to match up rock beds that are not directly next to one another. However, fossils of species that survived for a relatively short time can be used to link up isolated rocks: this technique is called "biostratigraphy". For instance, the conodont "Eoplacognathus pseudoplanus" has a short range in the Middle Ordovician period. If rocks of unknown age are found to have traces of "E. pseudoplanus", they must have a mid-Ordovician age. Such index fossils must be distinctive, be globally distributed and have a short time range to be useful. However, misleading results are produced if the index fossils turn out to have longer fossil ranges than first thought. Stratigraphy and biostratigraphy can in general provide only relative dating ("A" was before "B"), which is often sufficient for studying evolution. However, this is difficult for some time periods, because of the problems involved in matching up rocks of the same age across different continents.


title: Paleontology

text: Family-tree relationships may also help to narrow down the date when lineages first appeared. For instance, if fossils of B or C date to X million years ago and the calculated "family tree" says A was an ancestor of B and C, then A must have evolved more than X million years ago.


title: Paleontology

text: It is also possible to estimate how long ago two living clades diverged – i.e. approximately how long ago their last common ancestor must have lived – by assuming that DNA mutations accumulate at a constant rate. These "molecular clocks", however, are fallible, and provide only a very approximate timing: for example, they are not sufficiently precise and reliable for estimating when the groups that feature in the Cambrian explosion first evolved, and estimates produced by different techniques may vary by a factor of two.


title: Paleontology

text: Earth formed about and, after a collision that formed the Moon about 40 million years later, may have cooled quickly enough to have oceans and an atmosphere about . There is evidence on the Moon of a Late Heavy Bombardment by asteroids from . If, as seems likely, such a bombardment struck Earth at the same time, the first atmosphere and oceans may have been stripped away.


title: Paleontology

text: Paleontology traces the evolutionary history of life back to over , possibly as far as . The oldest clear evidence of life on Earth dates to , although there have been reports, often disputed, of fossil bacteria from and of geochemical evidence for the presence of life . Some scientists have proposed that life on Earth was "seeded" from elsewhere, but most research concentrates on various explanations of how life could have arisen independently on Earth.


title: Paleontology

text: For about 2,000 million years microbial mats, multi-layered colonies of different bacteria, were the dominant life on Earth. The evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis enabled them to play the major role in the oxygenation of the atmosphere from about . This change in the atmosphere increased their effectiveness as nurseries of evolution. While eukaryotes, cells with complex internal structures, may have been present earlier, their evolution speeded up when they acquired the ability to transform oxygen from a poison to a powerful source of metabolic energy. This innovation may have come from primitive eukaryotes capturing oxygen-powered bacteria as endosymbionts and transforming them into organelles called mitochondria. The earliest evidence of complex eukaryotes with organelles (such as mitochondria) dates from .


title: Paleontology

text: Multicellular life is composed only of eukaryotic cells, and the earliest evidence for it is the Francevillian Group Fossils from , although specialisation of cells for different functions first appears between (a possible fungus) and (a probable red alga). Sexual reproduction may be a prerequisite for specialisation of cells, as an asexual multicellular organism might be at risk of being taken over by rogue cells that retain the ability to reproduce.


title: Paleontology

text: The earliest known animals are cnidarians from about , but these are so modern-looking that must be descendants of earlier animals. Early fossils of animals are rare because they had not developed mineralised, easily fossilized hard parts until about . The earliest modern-looking bilaterian animals appear in the Early Cambrian, along with several "weird wonders" that bear little obvious resemblance to any modern animals. There is a long-running debate about whether this Cambrian explosion was truly a very rapid period of evolutionary experimentation; alternative views are that modern-looking animals began evolving earlier but fossils of their precursors have not yet been found, or that the "weird wonders" are evolutionary "aunts" and "cousins" of modern groups. Vertebrates remained a minor group until the first jawed fish appeared in the Late Ordovician.


title: Paleontology

text: The spread of animals and plants from water to land required organisms to solve several problems, including protection against drying out and supporting themselves against gravity. The earliest evidence of land plants and land invertebrates date back to about and respectively. Those invertebrates, as indicated by their trace and body fossils, were shown to be arthropods known as euthycarcinoids. The lineage that produced land vertebrates evolved later but very rapidly between and ; recent discoveries have overturned earlier ideas about the history and driving forces behind their evolution. Land plants were so successful that their detritus caused an ecological crisis in the Late Devonian, until the evolution of fungi that could digest dead wood.


title: Paleontology

text: During the Permian period, synapsids, including the ancestors of mammals, may have dominated land environments, but this ended with the Permian–Triassic extinction event , which came very close to wiping out all complex life. The extinctions were apparently fairly sudden, at least among vertebrates. During the slow recovery from this catastrophe a previously obscure group, archosaurs, became the most abundant and diverse terrestrial vertebrates. One archosaur group, the dinosaurs, were the dominant land vertebrates for the rest of the Mesozoic, and birds evolved from one group of dinosaurs. During this time mammals' ancestors survived only as small, mainly nocturnal insectivores, which may have accelerated the development of mammalian traits such as endothermy and hair. After the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event killed off all the dinosaurs except the birds, mammals increased rapidly in size and diversity, and some took to the air and the sea.


title: Paleontology

text: Fossil evidence indicates that flowering plants appeared and rapidly diversified in the Early Cretaceous between and . Their rapid rise to dominance of terrestrial ecosystems is thought to have been propelled by coevolution with pollinating insects. Social insects appeared around the same time and, although they account for only small parts of the insect "family tree", now form over 50% of the total mass of all insects.


title: Paleontology

text: Humans evolved from a lineage of upright-walking apes whose earliest fossils date from over . Although early members of this lineage had chimp-sized brains, about 25% as big as modern humans', there are signs of a steady increase in brain size after about . There is a long-running debate about whether "modern" humans are descendants of a single small population in Africa, which then migrated all over the world less than 200,000 years ago and replaced previous hominine species, or arose worldwide at the same time as a result of interbreeding.


title: Paleontology

text: Life on earth has suffered occasional mass extinctions at least since . Despite their disastrous effects, mass extinctions have sometimes accelerated the evolution of life on earth. When dominance of an ecological niche passes from one group of organisms to another, this is rarely because the new dominant group outcompetes the old, but usually because an extinction event allows a new group, which may posses an advantageous trait, to outlive the old and move into its niche.


title: Paleontology

text: The fossil record appears to show that the rate of extinction is slowing down, with both the gaps between mass extinctions becoming longer and the average and background rates of extinction decreasing. However, it is not certain whether the actual rate of extinction has altered, since both of these observations could be explained in several ways:


title: Paleontology

text: shows a different trend: a fairly swift rise from , a slight decline from , in which the devastating Permian–Triassic extinction event is an important factor, and a swift rise from to the present.


title: Paleontology

text: Although paleontology became established around 1800, earlier thinkers had noticed aspects of the fossil record. The ancient Greek philosopher Xenophanes (570–480 BCE) concluded from fossil sea shells that some areas of land were once under water. During the Middle Ages the Persian naturalist Ibn Sina, known as "Avicenna" in Europe, discussed fossils and proposed a theory of petrifying fluids on which Albert of Saxony elaborated in the 14th century. The Chinese naturalist Shen Kuo (1031–1095) proposed a theory of climate change based on the presence of petrified bamboo in regions that in his time were too dry for bamboo.


title: Paleontology

text: In early modern Europe, the systematic study of fossils emerged as an integral part of the changes in natural philosophy that occurred during the Age of Reason. In the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci made various significant contributions to the field as well as depicted numerous fossils. Leonardo's contributions are central to the history of paleontology because he established a line of continuity between the two main branches of paleontologyichnology and body fossil paleontology. He identified the following:


title: Paleontology

text: At the end of the 18th century Georges Cuvier's work established comparative anatomy as a scientific discipline and, by proving that some fossil animals resembled no living ones, demonstrated that animals could become extinct, leading to the emergence of paleontology. The expanding knowledge of the fossil record also played an increasing role in the development of geology, particularly stratigraphy.


title: Paleontology

text: The first half of the 19th century saw geological and paleontological activity become increasingly well organised with the growth of geologic societies and museums and an increasing number of professional geologists and fossil specialists. Interest increased for reasons that were not purely scientific, as geology and paleontology helped industrialists to find and exploit natural resources such as coal.


title: Paleontology

text: This contributed to a rapid increase in knowledge about the history of life on Earth and to progress in the definition of the geologic time scale, largely based on fossil evidence. Although she was rarely recognised by the scientific community, Mary Anning was a significant contributor to the field of palaeontology during this period; she uncovered multiple novel Mesozoic reptile fossils and deducted that what were then known as bezoar stones are in fact fossilised faeces. In 1822 Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville, editor of "Journal de Physique", coined the word "palaeontology" to refer to the study of ancient living organisms through fossils. As knowledge of life's history continued to improve, it became increasingly obvious that there had been some kind of successive order to the development of life. This encouraged early evolutionary theories on the transmutation of species.


title: Paleontology

text: After Charles Darwin published "Origin of Species" in 1859, much of the focus of paleontology shifted to understanding evolutionary paths, including human evolution, and evolutionary theory.


title: Paleontology

text: The last half of the 19th century saw a tremendous expansion in paleontological activity, especially in North America. The trend continued in the 20th century with additional regions of the Earth being opened to systematic fossil collection. Fossils found in China near the end of the 20th century have been particularly important as they have provided new information about the earliest evolution of animals, early fish, dinosaurs and the evolution of birds. The last few decades of the 20th century saw a renewed interest in mass extinctions and their role in the evolution of life on Earth. There was also a renewed interest in the Cambrian explosion that apparently saw the development of the body plans of most animal phyla. The discovery of fossils of the Ediacaran biota and developments in paleobiology extended knowledge about the history of life back far before the Cambrian.


title: Paleontology

text: Increasing awareness of Gregor Mendel's pioneering work in genetics led first to the development of population genetics and then in the mid-20th century to the modern evolutionary synthesis, which explains evolution as the outcome of events such as mutations and horizontal gene transfer, which provide genetic variation, with genetic drift and natural selection driving changes in this variation over time. Within the next few years the role and operation of DNA in genetic inheritance were discovered, leading to what is now known as the "Central Dogma" of molecular biology. In the 1960s molecular phylogenetics, the investigation of evolutionary "family trees" by techniques derived from biochemistry, began to make an impact, particularly when it was proposed that the human lineage had diverged from apes much more recently than was generally thought at the time. Although this early study compared proteins from apes and humans, most molecular phylogenetics research is now based on comparisons of RNA and DNA.


title: The Patrick Star Show

text: The Patrick Star Show is an American animated comedy television series developed by Luke Brookshier, Marc Ceccarelli, Andrew Goodman, Kaz, Mr. Lawrence, and Vincent Waller that premiered on Nickelodeon on July 9, 2021. It is a spinoff of "SpongeBob SquarePants" that focuses on Patrick Star and his family hosting a talk show. In March 2022, the series was renewed for a second season.


title: The Patrick Star Show

text: Characters from the original series — including SpongeBob SquarePants (voiced by Tom Kenny), Squidward Tentacles (voiced by Rodger Bumpass), Sandy Cheeks (voiced by Carolyn Lawrence), Mr. Krabs (voiced by Clancy Brown), Pearl Krabs (voiced by Lori Alan), and Plankton (voiced by Mr. Lawrence) — also appear in guest roles.


title: The Patrick Star Show

text: On August 10, 2020, it was announced that "SpongeBob SquarePants" would be receiving its second spinoff series, following "", and that the focus of the series would be on Patrick Star. In March 2021, it was announced that Nickelodeon had ordered 13 episodes, with the series set to release in summer 2021. On May 31, 2021, it was announced that the series would premiere in July 2021, and the first teaser trailer for the series was released. On June 17, 2021, it was announced that the series would premiere on July 9, 2021.


title: The Patrick Star Show

text: According to showrunner Marc Ceccarelli, the writers of "The Patrick Star Show" bent the rules of the original "SpongeBob" universe to allow for more creative freedom. Ceccarelli explained: "We really tried to just do anything we wanted... We mess with canon [the original series' continuity] a lot. I don't know if anybody knows this, but we don't really respect canon just for the sake of itself." The writers also aimed to "sideline" story structures, which "frees [them] up to be more surreal and randomly bizarre with the kinds of things [they] put out there."


title: The Patrick Star Show

text: On August 11, 2021, it was announced that Nickelodeon had ordered 13 additional episodes for the series, bringing the series to 26 produced episodes. On March 21, 2022, Nickelodeon renewed the series for a second season.


title: The Patrick Star Show

text: On July 21, 2022, a "SpongeBob Universe" crossover special was announced, featuring the main series and spinoffs "The Patrick Star Show" and "Kamp Koral". "The Tidal Zone", a spoof of "The Twilight Zone", was originally set to premiere on Nickelodeon on November 25, 2022, before getting delayed and rescheduled for release on January 13, 2023.


title: The Patrick Star Show

text: Common Sense Media gave the series a four out of five stars, writing, "Starfish spin-off has goofy fun, lots of slapstick violence."


title: I.O.I

text: I.O.I (; also known as IOI or Ideal of Idol) was a South Korean girl group formed by CJ E&M through the 2016 reality show "Produce 101" on Mnet. The group was composed of eleven members chosen from a pool of 101 trainees from various entertainment companies: Jeon So-mi, Kim Se-jeong, Choi Yoo-jung, Kim Chung-ha, Kim So-hye, Zhou Jieqiong, Jung Chae-yeon, Kim Do-yeon, Kang Mi-na, Lim Na-young and Yoo Yeon-jung. They debuted on May 4, 2016, with the EP "Chrysalis" and actively promoted as a whole and as a sub-unit for less than a year.


title: I.O.I

text: The group's concert titled "Time Slip – I.O.I", which was held on January 20 to 22, 2017, marked their last group activity on stage. They officially disbanded at the end of January 2017 and returned to their respective agencies.


title: I.O.I

text: In November 2015, Mnet announced their new survival show that would bring together 101 trainees from 46 entertainment companies to form a unit girl group with eleven members chosen by the viewers. The show premiered on January 21, 2016, and ended on April 1, 2016.


title: I.O.I

text: Prior to "Produce 101", some of the members of I.O.I gained recognition after appearing on other television shows: Kim Se-jeong was a contestant on competition show "K-pop Star 2" in 2012, Jeon So-mi was a member of the 2015 reality survival show "Sixteen", and Choi Yoo-jung appeared in the web drama "To Be Continued". In September 2015, Jung Chae-yeon debuted as a member of DIA but temporarily withdrew from the group to join "Produce 101". She also had a cameo appearance in the 2015 web drama "Sweet Temptation".


title: I.O.I

text: It was initially planned for the group to debut on April 1, 2016, with the song "Crush," which they performed as part of the finale of the show, but YMC Entertainment and Mnet decided to postpone the debut to better prepare the group's concept and choreography with a new song as I.O.I's debut single. Its genre was referred to as "Trapical Dutch Funk" (Hangul: ).


title: I.O.I

text: On April 3, 2016, a representative gave details of the plans for the debut of the group. Instead of releasing a digital single as initially planned, I.O.I would be releasing an EP with various songs. It was also reported that the group would have their own reality show on Mnet. On the same day, the members greeted the fans for the first time as I.O.I via their official Naver V app channel.


title: I.O.I

text: I.O.I officially debuted on May 4, 2016, through the release of their first album, "Chrysalis", accompanied with a music video for the title track "Dream Girls". The song is a trap pop dance track co-written by Eru and Paul with rap lyrics written by members Lim Na-young and Choi Yoo-jung. On May 5, the group held their debut stage on Mnet's "M Countdown", performing the title track and "Knock Knock Knock". On the same day, the group held their debut showcase and fan meeting at Jangchung Gymnasium in Seoul.


title: I.O.I

text: On June 10, 2016, YMC Entertainment revealed Lim Na-young, Chungha, Zhou Jieqiong, Kim So-hye, Choi Yoo-jung, Kim Do-yeon and Jeon So-mi as members of I.O.I's unit group, slated to promote the group's second album during the summer of 2016. Jung Chae-yeon joined her MBK Entertainment group DIA for a comeback, Kim Se-jeong and Kang Mi-na were preparing for their debut as members of Jellyfish Entertainment's girl group Gugudan at the time, and Yoo Yeon-jung was added into Starship Entertainment's girl group WJSN for their second comeback.


title: I.O.I

text: On August 9, 2016, the sub-unit released a single titled "Whatta Man (Good Man)". The song was inspired by Linda Lyndell's "What a Man" and was produced by Ryan S. Jhun who also composed I.O.I's song "Crush". The choreography for "Whatta Man" was arranged by member Chungha.


title: I.O.I

text: On August 15, 2016, I.O.I released the digital single "Hand in Hand", a remake of the Seoul 1988 Summer Olympics theme song originally sung by Koreana.


title: I.O.I

text: On October 17, 2016, I.O.I released their extended play titled "Miss Me?". The title track, "Very Very Very", was written, composed and arranged by Park Jin-young, founder of Jeon So-mi's agency JYP Entertainment. With a rhythm of 206 bpm, the upbeat and energetic song is one of the fastest that Park has ever made. The group's special comeback show titled "I Miss You Very Very Very Much Show" was aired live through Mnet on October 16, 2016, followed by the release of "Miss Me?" and the title track's music video at midnight.


title: I.O.I

text: I.O.I received their first music program trophy as a whole group with "Very Very Very" on "Show Champion" on October 26.


title: I.O.I

text: On November 5, 2016, YMC Entertainment confirmed that I.O.I would be disbanding on January 31, 2017. The group would still be actively promoting until the end of their contracts; including guest appearance on variety shows such as "", "Yang and Nam Show" and "Knowing Bros". From January 20 to 22, 2017, I.O.I held their final concert titled "Time Slip – I.O.I". The three-day concert was held in Jangchung Gymnasium, where the group held their debut showcase.


title: I.O.I

text: On January 10, 2017, it was revealed that I.O.I had received songs from various producers and songwriters as potential songs for their final release, including B1A4's Jinyoung. On January 17, YMC Entertainment announced that the group's final track before official disbandment would be "Downpour", written and co-produced by Seventeen's Woozi. The ballad was personally chosen and recorded by all eleven members of the group. The digital single and its music video was released the next day at midnight.


title: I.O.I

text: I.O.I's last schedule as a group was on January 25, 2017. They filmed a new CF for school uniform brand Elite along with boy group Pentagon. The band officially disbanded on January 29, with the members' last television show appearance on MBC's "Section TV" and the fan cafe closing down on the 31st. It was also announced on January 31 that I.O.I's song "Downpour" won "Inkigayo"'s final January 2017 trophy with no live broadcast due to Lunar New Year's Day.


title: I.O.I

text: On July 1, 2019, Studio Blu confirmed that the group would return in October 2019 with nine members, excluding Yoo Yeon-jung and Jeon So-mi. On September 6, the planned comeback was postponed to December. On October 29, the comeback was canceled due to scheduling conflicts between the members and the ongoing Mnet vote manipulation investigation. On May 4, 2021, the 5th anniversary of the group's debut, the group (except for Mina and Jieqiong) held a reunion livestream. Jieqiong managed to join the livestream via video calling.


title: I.O.I

text: It was reported on March 24, 2016, that even before the finale of "Produce 101", the group already confirmed seven CF deals for different companies with an estimated profit of ₩1.4 billion.


title: I.O.I

text: On April 4, 2016, I.O.I was appointed as new model for Etude House, Mom's Touch Chicken and Burger, Woongjin Foods' Haneul Bori Ice Sparkling Water and HiteJinro's Chamisul. However, due to the legal drinking age in South Korea, only three members, Lim Na-young, Chungha and Kim Se-jeong, were involved in filming of the ad for a new alcoholic beverage by distiller HiteJinro.


title: I.O.I

text: On April 11, 2016, I.O.I was chosen as the advertising model for mobile games from Netmarble, "100 Shots 100 Hits" and "StoneAge". They also sang the OST of the games. The next day, the group was confirmed as the new endorser for SK Telecom, South Korea's largest wireless carrier.


title: I.O.I

text: I.O.I also endorsed CJ CheilJedang's dessert brand Petitzel Eclairs and Korean fashion brand Pancoat.


title: I.O.I

text: On May 25, 2016, I.O.I was appointed as the promotional models for KB Kookmin Bank, one of the largest banks in South Korea. On June 7, 2016, the group was chosen as the exclusive models of online marketplace Auction.


title: I.O.I

text: On August 18, 2016, school uniform brand Elite announced their collaboration with I.O.I and Pentagon as their new models.


title: Monica Horan

text: Monica Louise Horan (born January 29, 1963) is an American actress best known for her role as Amy MacDougall-Barone on the television sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond".


title: Monica Horan

text: Horan was born in Darby, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Selma (née Spencer), a clerk, and Robert J. Horan, a courthouse officer. She graduated from Archbishop Prendergast Catholic High School for Girls in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania in 1980. She attended Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, graduating with a degree in Theater Performance in 1984. She then moved to New York City where she performed in off-off Broadway theatre while working as a telephone sales agent for Telecharge. She met her future husband, Philip Rosenthal, who served as executive producer of "Everybody Loves Raymond", while attending Hofstra, and she converted to Judaism before their marriage in 1990.


title: Monica Horan

text: Horan is probably best known for her appearance in the part of Amy McDougall (later Barone), Robert Barone's off-on again girlfriend, then wife, on the CBS-TV sitcom series "Everybody Loves Raymond". Horan appeared in 66 episodes of the series, making her first appearance in the episode titled "Who's Handsome?" (Season 1, episode #14). She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their two children. Horan has guest-starred on the "Hot in Cleveland" series (Season 2) playing an Amish woman, and in 2017 was reunited with her "Everybody Loves Raymond" co-star Patricia Heaton when she guest-starred on a Season 8 episode of "The Middle". She featured in her husband's travel/food show, "Somebody Feed Phil".


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: Gloria Gaynor (née Fowles; born September 7, 1943) is an American singer, best known for the disco era hits "I Will Survive" (1978), "Let Me Know (I Have a Right)" (1979), "I Am What I Am" (1983), and her version of "Never Can Say Goodbye" (1974).


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: Gaynor was born Gloria Fowles in Newark, New Jersey, to Daniel Fowles and Queenie Mae Proctor. Her grandmother lived nearby and was involved in her upbringing. "There was always music in our house", Gaynor wrote in her autobiography "I Will Survive". She enjoyed listening to the radio, and to records by Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughan. Her father played the ukulele and guitar and sang professionally in nightclubs with a group called Step 'n' Fetchit. Gloria grew up a tomboy; she had five brothers and one sister. Her brothers sang gospel and formed a quartet with a friend.


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: Gaynor was not allowed to sing with the all-male group, nor was her younger brother Arthur, as Gloria was a girl and he was too young. Arthur later acted as a tour manager for Gaynor. The family was relatively poor, but Gaynor recalls the house being filled with laughter and happiness, and the dinner table being open to neighborhood friends. They moved to a housing project in 1960, where Gaynor attended South Side High School; she graduated in 1961.


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: "All through my young life I wanted to sing, although nobody in my family knew it", Gaynor wrote in her autobiography. Gaynor began singing in a night club in Newark, where she was recommended to a local band by a neighbor. After several years of performing in local clubs and along the East Coast, Gaynor began her recording career in 1971 at Columbia Records.


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: Gaynor was a singer with the Soul Satisfiers, a jazz and R&B music band, in the 1960s. She recorded "She'll Be Sorry/Let Me Go Baby" (for the first time as "Gloria Gaynor") in 1965, for Johnny Nash's "Jocida" label. Her first real success came in 1973 when she was signed to Columbia Records by Clive Davis. The fruit of that was the release of the flop single "Honey Bee".


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: Moving on to MGM Records she finally hit with the album "Never Can Say Goodbye". The first side of the album consisted of three songs ("Honey Bee", "Never Can Say Goodbye", and "Reach Out, I'll Be There"), with no break between the songs. This 19-minute dance marathon proved to be enormously popular, especially at dance clubs. All three songs were released as singles via radio edits and all of them became hits. The album was instrumental in introducing disco music to the public, "Never Can Say Goodbye" becoming the first song to top "Billboard" magazine's dance chart. It was also a hit on the mainstream Pop Charts, peaking at No. 9, and on the R&B Charts, reaching No. 34 (the original version by The Jackson 5 had been a No. 2 hit on the Hot 100 in 1971). It also marked her first significant chart success internationally, making it into the Top 5 in Australia, Canada, Germany and the UK. The song would go on to be certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry, and subsequently gold in the US.


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: Capitalizing on the success of her first album, Gaynor quickly released her follow-up, "Experience Gloria Gaynor", later that same year. Some of her lesser-known singles, due to lack of recurrent airplay—including "Honey Bee" (1974), "Casanova Brown" (1975), and "Let's Make a Deal" (1976), as well as her cover of the Four Tops' "Reach Out, I'll Be There"—became hits in nightclubs and reached the Top 5 on "Billboard"s disco charts. Many charted on the Hot 100 and R&B charts as well, with songs like "(If You Want It) Do It Yourself"—a No. 1 disco hit—peaking at No. 98 on the Pop Charts and No. 24 on the R&B Charts. Gaynor's cover of "How High the Moon" topped the US Dance Charts, and made the lower parts of both the pop and R&B charts, as well as achieving some international chart success. After her 1976 album "I've Got You", Gaynor shifted from her hit production team to work with other producers. She has recorded some 16 albums since, including one in England, one in Germany, and two in Italy.


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: In the next few years, Gaynor released two albums "Glorious" and "Gloria Gaynor's Park Avenue Sound", but would only enjoy a few more moderate hits. However, in late 1978, with the release of her album "Love Tracks", she climbed the pop charts again with her smash hit single "I Will Survive". The lyrics of this song are written from the point of view of a woman, recently dumped, telling her former lover that she can cope without him and does not want anything more to do with him. The song has become something of an anthem of female emancipation. Originally, "I Will Survive" was a B-side when Polydor Records released it in late 1978. The A-side, a song called "Substitute", then a recent worldwide hit for South African girl-group Clout, was considered more "radio friendly". Boston disco radio DJ Jack King turned the record over and recalls being stunned by what he heard: "I couldn't believe they were burying this monster hit on the B-side", stated King. "I played it and played it and my listeners went nuts!". The massive audience response forced the record company to flip the songs, so that subsequent copies of the single listed the more popular song on the A-side. King was honored at New York's Disco Masters Awards Show for three consecutive years (1979–1981) in recognition of his relentless push of the song. He was also named "Most Influential Radio Personality of the Year" (1980) by "Rock & Records" magazine. Gaynor and King each received a Grammy Award for Best Disco Recording in 1980, the only year that award was given (Gloria had to wait another 40 years for her second Grammy, in the Grammy Award for Best Roots Gospel Album category). It is ranked No. 492 on "Rolling Stone"s list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", and ranked at No. 97 on Billboard magazine's "All-Time Hot 100". In 2000, the song was ranked No. 1 in VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time" and remains there to this day.


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: As a disco number, the song was unique for its time by virtue of Gaynor's having no background singers or lush production. And, unlike her first disco hits, the track was not pitched up to make it faster and to render Gaynor's recorded voice in a higher register than that in which she actually sang. Most disco hits at the time were heavily produced, with multiple voices, orchestrations, overdubs, and adjustments to pitch and speed. "I Will Survive" had a much sparer and "cleaner" sound. Had it been originally planned and released as an A-side, it would almost certainly have undergone a substantially more heavy-handed remix. In late 1979, she released the album "I Have a Right" which contained her next disco hit, "Let Me Know (I Have a Right)", which featured Doc Severinsen of "The Tonight Show" fame, playing a trumpet solo. Gaynor also recorded a disco song called "Love Is Just a Heartbeat Away" in 1979 for the cult vampire film "", which featured a number of disco songs.


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: In 1980 and again in 1981, Gaynor released two disco albums which were virtually ignored in the United States due to the , which began late in 1979. The album's singles barely registered on urban contemporary radio, where disco music remained popular. In 1982, having looked into a wide variety of faiths and religious movements, she became a Christian and began to distance herself from a past she considered to be sinful. That same year, she released an album of mid-tempo R&B and pop-style songs entitled "Gloria Gaynor".


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: Gaynor would achieve her final success in the 1980s with the release of her album "I Am Gloria Gaynor" in 1984. This was mainly due to the song "I Am What I Am", which became a hit at dance clubs, and then on the Club Play chart in late 1983/early 1984. "I Am What I Am" became a gay anthem and made Gaynor a gay icon. Her 1986 album, "The Power of Gloria Gaynor", was almost entirely composed of cover versions of other songs that were popular at the time.


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: Gaynor's career received a revitalizing spark in the early and mid 1990s with the worldwide disco revival movement. During the late 1990s, she dabbled in acting for a while, guest starring on "The Wayans Bros", "That '70s Show" (singing "I Will Survive"), and "Ally McBeal," before doing a limited engagement performance in Broadway's "Smokey Joe's Cafe". In 2001, Gaynor performed "I Will Survive" at the 30th Anniversary concert for Michael Jackson.


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: Gaynor returned to the recording studio in 2002, releasing her first album in over 15 years, "I Wish You Love". The two singles released from the album, "Just Keep Thinking About You" and "I Never Knew", both topped "Billboard"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Hot Dance Music/Club Play. Both singles also secured moderate to heavy dance format radio airplay. The latter song also charted No. 30 on "Billboard"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Adult Contemporary chart. In 2004, Gaynor re-released her 1997 album "The Answer" (also released under the title "What a Life") as a follow up to her successful album "I Wish You Love". The album includes her club hit "Oh, What a Life".


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: In late 2002, Gaynor appeared with R&B stars on the "Rhythm, Love, and Soul" edition of the PBS series "American Soundtrack". Her performance of the disco hit "I Will Survive" and new single "I Never Knew" was included on the accompanying live album that was released in 2004.


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: On September 19, 2005, Gaynor was honored twice when she and her music were inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame, in the "Artist" category, along with fellow disco artists Chic and Sylvester. Her classic anthem "I Will Survive" was inducted under the "Records" category. In January 2008, the American Diabetes Association named Gaynor the Honorary Spokesperson of the 2008 "NYC Step Out to Fight Diabetes Walk".


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: More television appearances followed in the late 2000s with 2009 appearances on "The John Kerwin Show", "The Wendy Williams Show", and "The View" to promote the 30th anniversary of "I Will Survive". In 2010, she appeared on "Last Comic Standing" and "The Tonight Show".


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: Forty years after its release, Gaynor continues to ride the success of "I Will Survive", touring the country and the world over and performing her signature song on dozens of TV shows. A few successful remixes of the song during the 1990s and 2000s along with new versions of the song by Lonnie Gordon, Diana Ross, Chantay Savage, rock group Cake and others, as well as constant recurrent airplay on nearly all soft AC and rhythmic format radio stations have helped to keep the song in the mainstream. Gaynor said of her biggest hit in a 2012 interview: "It feels great to have such a song like that because I get kids five and six years old telling me they like the song, and then people seventy-five and eighty. It's quite an honor." The song was revived yet again in 2015 for the film "The Martian", where it is used at the end as the credits roll.


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: On May 16, 2015, Gaynor was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Music by Dowling College. In 2017, she made a cameo appearance as a flight attendant in a Capital One commercial, while Samuel L. Jackson, Charles Barkley, and Spike Lee sang "I Will Survive".


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: In 2016, "I Will Survive" was selected for induction into the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: On May 6, 2017, Gaynor performed with her band at the Library of Congress' celebration of disco music at Bibliodiscotheque, a disco dance party in the Great Hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building.


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: Due to the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Harvey on the state of Texas in August 2017, Gaynor rewrote the lyrics to "I Will Survive", changing the title to "Texas Will Survive", and posted a video of herself singing the song on Twitter on August 30, 2017.


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: In January 2020, she won her second Grammy Award in her career, 40 years after her first, for her roots gospel album "Testimony".


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: In 2021, Gaynor returned to disco music when she recorded "Can’t Stop Writing Songs About You" with Australian singer Kylie Minogue for the reissue of Minogue's fifteenth studio album "Disco" entitled "Disco: Guest List Edition". The collaboration occurred following Gaynor praising Minogue for keeping Disco alive with her album of the same name.


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: In 2022, Gaynor competed in season eight of "The Masked Singer" as "Mermaid" who rode on a giant clam-like vehicle that the Men in Black had to push around. After being eliminated on "Andrew Lloyd Webber Night" alongside Mario Cantone as "Maize", Gaynor did her performance of "I Will Survive".


title: Gloria Gaynor

text: Gaynor married her manager Linwood Simon in 1979. The couple divorced in 2005. She has no children. According to Gaynor, while she always wanted children, her ex-husband never desired any.


title: Flamethrower

text: A flamethrower is a ranged incendiary device designed to project a controllable jet of fire. First deployed by the Byzantine Empire in the 7th century AD, flamethrowers saw use in modern times during World War I, and more widely in World War II as a tactical siege weapon against fortifications.


title: Flamethrower

text: Most military flamethrowers use liquid fuel, typically either gasoline or diesel, but commercial flamethrowers are generally blowtorches using gaseous fuels such as propane; gases are safer in peacetime applications, because their flames have less mass flow rate and dissipate faster, and often are easier to extinguish when necessary.


title: Flamethrower

text: Apart from the military applications, flamethrowers have peacetime applications where there is a need for controlled burning, such as in sugarcane harvesting and other land-management tasks. Various forms are designed for an operator to carry, while others are mounted on vehicles.


title: Flamethrower

text: Modern flamethrowers were first used during the trench warfare conditions of World War I and their use greatly increased in World War II. They can be vehicle-mounted, as on a tank, or man-portable.


title: Flamethrower

text: The man-portable flamethrower consists of two elements—the backpack and the gun. The backpack element usually consists of two or three cylinders. In a two-cylinder system, one cylinder holds compressed, inert propellant gas (usually nitrogen), and the other holds flammable liquid, typically some form of petrochemical. A three-cylinder system often has two outer cylinders of flammable liquid and a central cylinder of propellant gas to maintain the balance of the soldier carrying it. The gas propels the liquid fuel out of the cylinder through a flexible pipe and then into the gun element of the flamethrower system. The gun consists of a small reservoir, a spring-loaded valve, and an ignition system; depressing a trigger opens the valve, allowing pressurized flammable liquid to flow and pass over the igniter and out of the gun nozzle. The igniter can be one of several ignition systems: A simple type is an electrically-heated wire coil; another used a small pilot flame, fueled with pressurized gas from the system.


title: Flamethrower

text: Flamethrowers were primarily used against battlefield fortifications, bunkers, and other protected emplacements. A flamethrower projects a stream of flammable liquid, rather than flame, which allows bouncing the stream off walls and ceilings to project the fire into unseen spaces, such as inside bunkers or pillboxes. Typically, popular visual media depict the flamethrower as short-ranged and only effective for a few metres (due to the common use of propane gas as the fuel in flamethrowers in movies, for the safety of the actors). Contemporary flamethrowers can incinerate a target some from the operator; moreover, an unignited stream of flammable liquid can be fired and afterwards ignited, possibly by a lamp or other flame inside the bunker.


title: Flamethrower

text: Flamethrowers pose many risks to the operator. The first disadvantage is the weapon's weight and length, which impairs the soldier's mobility. The weapon is limited to only a few seconds of burn time, since it uses fuel very quickly, requiring the operator to be precise and conservative. Flamethrowers using a fougasse-style explosive propellant system also have a limited number of shots. The weapon is very visible on the battlefield, which causes operators to become immediately singled out as prominent targets, especially for snipers and designated marksmen. Flamethrower operators are rarely taken prisoner, especially when their target survived an attack by the weapon; captured flamethrower users were in some cases summarily executed.


title: Flamethrower

text: The flamethrower's effective range is short in comparison with that of other battlefield weapons of similar size. To be effective, flamethrower soldiers must approach their target, risking exposure to enemy fire. Vehicular flamethrowers also have this problem; they may have considerably greater range than a man-portable flamethrower, but their range is still short compared with that of other infantry weapons.


title: Flamethrower

text: The risk of a flamethrower operator being caught in the explosion of their weapon due to enemy hits on the tanks is exaggerated in films. In some cases, the pressure tanks have exploded and killed the operator when hit by bullets or grenade shrapnel. In the documentary "Vietnam in HD", platoon sergeant Charles Brown tells of how one of his men was killed when his flamethrower was hit by grenade shrapnel during the battle for Hill 875.


title: Flamethrower

text: The pressurizer is filled with a non-flammable gas that is under high pressure. If this tank ruptures, it might knock the operator forward as it was expended in the same way a pressurized aerosol can bursts outward when punctured. The fuel mixture in the containers is difficult to light, which is why magnesium-filled igniters are required when the weapon is fired. When pierced by a bullet, a metal can filled with diesel or napalm will merely leak unless the round is an incendiary type that may ignite the mixture inside.


title: Flamethrower

text: The best way to minimize the disadvantages of flame weapons was to mount them on armoured vehicles. The Commonwealth and the United States were the most prolific users of vehicle-mounted flame weapons; the British and Canadians fielded "Wasps" (Universal Carriers fitted with flamethrowers) at infantry battalion level, beginning in mid-1944, and eventually incorporating them into infantry battalions. Early tank-mounted flamethrower vehicles included the "Badger" (a converted Ram tank) and the "Oke", used first at Dieppe.


title: Flamethrower

text: A propane-operated flamethrower is a straightforward device. The gas is expelled through the gun assembly by its own pressure and is ignited at the exit of the barrel through piezo ignition.


title: Flamethrower

text: Liquid-operated flamethrowers use a smaller tank with a pressurized gas to expel the flammable liquid fuel. The propellant gas is fed to two tubes. The first opens in the fuel tanks, providing the pressure necessary for expelling the liquid. The other tube leads to an ignition chamber behind the exit of the gun assembly, where it is mixed with air and ignited through piezo ignition. This pre-ignition line is the source of the flame seen in front of the gun assembly in movies and documentaries. As the fuel passes through the flame, it is ignited and propelled towards the target.


title: Flamethrower

text: The concept of throwing fire as a weapon has existed since ancient times. During the Peloponnesian War, Boeotians used some kind of a flamethrower trying to destroy the fortification walls of the Athenians during the Battle of Delium. Later, during the Byzantine era, sailors used rudimentary hand-pumped flamethrowers on board their naval ships. Greek fire, extensively used by the Byzantine Empire, is said to have been invented by Kallinikos of Heliopolis, probably about 673. Byzantine texts described weapons, used by Byzantine land forces, which were shooting Greek fire and called cheirosiphona (χειροσίφωνα, meaning hand-held siphons, singular χειροσίφωνο). The flamethrower found its origins in a device consisting of a hand-held pump that shot bursts of Greek fire via a siphon-hose and a piston which ignited it with a match, similar to modern versions, as it was ejected. An illustration in Poliorcetica of Hero of Byzantium display a soldier with a portable flamethrower.


title: Flamethrower

text: Greek fire, used primarily at sea, gave the Byzantines a substantial military advantage against enemies such as members of the Arab Empire (who later adopted the use of Greek fire). An 11th-century illustration of its use survives in the John Skylitzes manuscript.


title: Flamethrower

text: The "Pen Huo Qi" ("fire spraying device") was a Chinese piston flamethrower that used a substance similar to petrol or naphtha, invented around 919 AD during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The earliest reference to Greek fire in China was made in 917 AD, written by Wu Renchen in his "Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms". In 919 CE, the siphon projector-pump was used to spread the 'fierce fire oil' that could not be doused with water, as recorded by Lin Yu (林禹) in his "Wu-Yue Beishi" (吳越備史), hence the first credible Chinese reference to the flamethrower employing the chemical solution of Greek fire. Lin Yu mentioned also that the 'fierce fire oil' derived ultimately from China's contact in the 'southern seas', with Arabia (大食國 "Dashiguo"). In the Battle of Langshan Jiang (Wolf Mountain River) in 919, the naval fleet of the Wenmu King of Wuyue defeated the fleet of the Kingdom of Wu because he had used 'fire oil' to burn his fleet; this signified the first Chinese use of gunpowder in warfare, since a slow-burning match fuse was required to ignite the flames. The Chinese applied the use of double-piston bellows to pump petrol out of a single cylinder (with an upstroke and a downstroke), lit at the end by a slow-burning gunpowder match to fire a continuous stream of flame (as referred to in the "Wujing Zongyao" manuscript of 1044 AD). In the suppression of the Southern Tang state by 976 AD, early Song naval forces confronted them on the Yangtze River in 975 AD. Southern Tang forces attempted to use flamethrowers against the Song navy, but were accidentally consumed by their own fire when violent winds swept in their direction. Documented also in later Chinese publications, illustrations and descriptions of mobile flamethrowers on four-wheel push carts appear in the "Wujing Zongyao", written in 1044 AD (its illustration redrawn in 1601 as well). Advances in military technology aided the Song dynasty in its defense against hostile neighbours to the north, including the Mongols.


title: Flamethrower

text: Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Khwārazmī in "Mafātīḥ al"-"ʿUlūm" (“Keys to the Sciences”) ca. 976 AD mentions the "bāb al-midfa" and the "bāb al-mustaq" which he said were parts of naphtha-throwers and projectors ("al-naffātāt wa al-zarāqāt"). Book of Ingenious Mechanical Device ("Kitāb fī ma 'rifat al-ḥiyal al-handasiyya") of 1206 AD by Ibn al-Razzaz al-Jazari mentioned about ejectors of naphtha ("zarāqāt al-naft").


title: Flamethrower

text: Although flamethrowers were never used in the American Civil War, the use of Greek fire was threatened, and flamethrowers have been in use in most modern conflicts ever since.


title: Flamethrower

text: The English word "flamethrower" is a loan-translation of the German word "Flammenwerfer", since the modern flamethrower was invented in Germany. The first flamethrower, in the modern sense, is usually credited to Richard Fiedler. He submitted evaluation models of his "Flammenwerfer" to the German Army in 1901. The most significant model submitted was a portable device, consisting of a vertical single cylinder long, horizontally divided in two, with pressurized gas in the lower section and flammable oil in the upper section. On depressing a lever the propellant gas forced the flammable oil into and through a rubber tube and over a simple igniting wick device in a steel nozzle. The weapon projected a jet of fire and enormous clouds of smoke some . It was a single-shot weapon—for burst firing, a new igniter section was attached each time.