Chapter 1: What unique brands are highlighted in the Brand Envy episode?
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We're going to show you our big new Studebaker. Mamma mia, that's a spicy meatball. What love doesn't conquer, Alka-Seltzer will. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly.
Radio 4. We present The Archers.
Back in 1950 England, a man named Godfrey Baisley produced the pilot episode of a new radio show. At that time, the BBC was airing a very popular radio show called Dick Barton Special Agent that followed the exploits of ex-commando Richard Barton, who solved crimes and saved the nation from disaster every week. This new radio series created by Baisley had nothing to do with secret agents.
It was produced along with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. The purpose of the show was to relay modern agricultural information to post-war British farmers to help maximize the production of food for the nation. Baisley believed that the dangers and risks in farming were just as great as the cliffhangers in the Dick Barton show.
A farmer's entire livelihood could disappear in a thunderstorm. So, instead of communicating dry information to farmers, Baisley chose to create a fictional world inhabited by interesting and quirky characters. At that time, Dick Barton's special agent was just finishing its run, and this new show for farmers titled The Archers took its place.
Like the Dick Barton series, it would run Monday to Friday. And like Dick Barton, each episode would only be 15 minutes long. As The Archers found its footing, the writers hit on a formula. 10% farming information, 30% general information about the countryside, and 60% entertainment. The radio series revolved around the lives of three farmers who live in the fictional village of Ambridge.
First and foremost was Dan Archer and his family, who farmed efficiently with little money. There was Walter Gabriel, who farmed inefficiently with little money. And there was wealthy businessman George Fairbrother, who intentionally farmed at a loss for tax reasons.
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Chapter 2: How did Mr. Bean become a global comedy icon?
Soon, the Archers began to attract millions of listeners. In 1954 and again in 1955, the Archers won the National Radio Awards Most Entertaining Program of the Year. It was now attracting a peak of 20 million listeners weekly. Throughout the 1960s, the show was still very popular with 11 million listeners per week. But by the mid-70s, the Archers began to struggle.
The BBC seriously considered cancelling the show. In 1975, female writers were brought in for the first time and the show found a second wind. The episodes became better than ever and began tackling contemporary themes like rural drug addiction, family breakups and the decimation of foot and mouth disease.
But now on Radio 4, it's time for the 12,000th episode of The Archers. It's Friday morning and John's called in at Grange Farm.
The Archers is still running on BBC2 this day with six new shows every week. It has produced over 20,850 episodes as of this writing. And each installment is now just 13 minutes long. What began as a radio show dedicated to farmers is now a contemporary drama in a rural setting.
It is so revered in Britain, there was a nod to it in the opening ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympic Games when the theme song was played at the beginning of the segment about British culture. The Archers Radio Show, now available as a podcast, is the world's longest-running drama. It is a brand that has lasted 76 years and counting. Welcome to our annual Brand Envy episode.
This is the show where I tip my hat to unique brands that have lasted for years. Today, we'll talk about a very funny character who has made the world laugh without uttering a single word, an idea that was born on the side of highways, and we'll talk about a movie that has had the longest run in cinema history.
You're under the influence. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Sir Simon Rattle. Tonight, as a tribute to the British film industry, he is conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Chariots of Fire.
Do you remember this other moment during the opening ceremony at the London 2012 Olympic Games? The London Symphony Orchestra begins to play. And when the camera reveals the person playing the repetitive note on the synthesizer... It's none other than Mr. Bean. Tasked with carrying the steady electronic pulse of that great Vangelis theme, Mr. Bean starts to get bored.
He checks his watch, he yawns, he takes a selfie, then starts to daydream about being in the actual Chariots of Fire movie. And while daydreaming, he keeps playing well after the orchestra has finished the piece, much to the mock horror of the conductor. Then Mr. Bean scrambles to play a big flourish. It was hilarious, and the crowd in the stadium loved it.
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Chapter 3: What is the history and significance of motels in America?
Then, in 1987, Atkinson did an interesting experiment at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal. Because Canada is bilingual, Atkinson asked if he could perform his Mr. Bean character on the French stage, even though he spoke no French. He wanted to know if his bumbling, wordless character worked in front of a non-English audience. And it did. It was a huge hit.
That proved Mr. Bean's physical comedy just might work around the world. Rowan Atkinson began his performing life as a choir boy at the Durham Cathedral in the northeast of England, where one of his fellow choir members was the future Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
While Atkinson was studying engineering, he was always doing humorous impersonations to amuse his school friends, and he acted in school plays. When he later went to Oxford to do an engineering PhD, he got involved with the Oxford University Dramatic Society.
There, he met comedy writer Richard Curtis, who would go on to write and direct movies like Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Love Actually. Atkinson and Curtis became lifelong friends and collaborators. The first official TV appearance of Mr. Bean was on January 1, 1990. It was a half-hour special for Thames Television.
Subsequent episodes of Mr. Bean appeared sporadically, between one and four times a year. The shows were co-written by Rowan Atkinson, Richard Curtis, and Robin Driscoll. Hard to believe, but there were only 15 episodes of the Mr. Bean TV show in total. Despite that tiny archive, Mr. Bean captivated the world.
The show was broadcast in 190 countries, and it has spawned two major motion pictures that have each grossed over $250 million, plus a popular animated series and multiple Mr. Bean commercials. The Mr. Bean Show is the most watched in-flight program in the world and is carried by 50 airlines at any one Mr. Bean is a fascinating character. He is bumbling and petulant.
Rowan Atkinson describes Mr. Bean as a child in a man's body. He certainly has the curiosity of a child and a complete inability for any adult social interaction. He is also without scruples, is quick to cheat, and often destroys property without a second thought. His facial expressions and rubber physicality are hilarious.
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Chapter 4: How did The Rocky Horror Picture Show transition from flop to cult classic?
Mr. Bean is gifted at creating chaos and has an absurd way of solving problems. One of my favorite scenes is when Mr. Bean decides to change out of his clothes and into his swimsuit while standing on a public beach. He begins with putting his swimming trunks on over his pants, then somehow manages to take off his pants while threading them through his trunks.
It is a virtuoso piece of physical comedy. Search Mr. Bean at the Beach on YouTube. You won't regret it. How popular is Mr. Bean? Well, he has more YouTube subscribers than Adele and almost twice as many Facebook followers as Taylor Swift. That should tell you everything you need to know. Mr. Bean's constant misfortune is our never-ending joy and how lucky we are. Mr. Bean is a brand I envy.
When we come back, the word motel first appears in the dictionary.
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When my wife and I drive up Highway 11 from Toronto to Cottage Country in Ontario, I am struck by the number of motels still in business. The word motel is short for motor hotels. While the word hotel first appeared in the English language around 1687, the word motel didn't appear until 1925, when automobile travel was becoming more and more popular.
As a matter of fact, the very first motel popped up in California in 1925. It was called the Milestone Mo-Tel and was owned by brothers Arthur and Alfred Heinemann. They reportedly came up with the word Mo-Tel because they couldn't fit the words Milestone Motor Hotel on their sign, so they shortened it.
Before motels, motorists used auto camps when traveling, which were usually separate cabins on highways that offered no private facilities. Eventually, those separate cabins morphed into long blocks of rooms under one roof. In those early days, hotels were mostly built in the middle of towns and cities near railway stations.
Those hotels didn't foresee the popularity of the automobile, and as a result, didn't offer enough parking space. That's where the motel saw its opportunity. Entrepreneurs began buying land on the edge of towns and on highways. These motels offered motorists convenient lodgings as they could walk right into their rooms from the parking lot. And best of all, they featured indoor plumbing.
The word motel entered dictionaries in 1945. After World War II, when gas rationing stopped, there was a boom in automobile sales, and that fueled the construction of motels on the nation's highways. By 1960, there were over 65,000 motels across Canada and the U.S., You may remember that motels had unique key fobs.
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Chapter 5: What cultural impact did The Rocky Horror Picture Show have over the years?
That was where the Rocky Horror Picture Show was screened every Friday at the bewitching hour. And what wild fun that was. I had never seen anything like it. The Rocky Horror Picture Show began life as a musical in London, England in 1973. Created by an out-of-work actor named Richard O'Brien, he wrote it to keep busy during long winter nights. He originally titled it The Rocky Horror Show.
The play was part sci-fi and part horror and featured an outrageous cast of misfits, including an unknown actor named Tim Curry who played the lead role of transvestite Dr. Frankenfurter.
Chapter 6: What lessons can entrepreneurs learn from enduring brands?
As the story unfolds, a car driven by an innocent couple named Brad and Janet suffers a flat tire in a storm one night. Spotting a castle on a nearby hill, the couple knock on the door for help. The castle is occupied by strange people in costume having a party. Then, the owner of the castle, Dr. Frankenfurter, makes a memorable entrance. The mad doctor has a passion.
Chapter 7: How do unique ideas contribute to the longevity of a brand?
He wants to create the perfect man in his lab, whom he christens Rocky. It's a rock and roll take on the Frankenstein story. Along the way, craziness happens, hilarity ensues, Brad and Janet lose their innocence, and there are a lot of really great rock songs. The stage play became an instant hit, got rave reviews, and won the Evening Standard's Best Musical Award.
Lou Adler, the famed music producer, saw Rocky Horror on stage in London.
Chapter 8: What final thoughts does the host share about brand envy?
He loved it and immediately purchased the American theatrical rights. When it ran for nine months in Los Angeles, it was just as popular as it had been in the UK. But when it moved to Broadway, it was a different story. New Yorkers didn't buy all the hype. For the first time, the reviews were terrible.
However, an executive from 20th Century Fox loved it and offered $1.4 million to adapt it to the big screen. Tim Curry reprised his role as Frankenfurter, Brad was played by Barry Bostwick, Susan Sarandon played Janet, singer Meatloaf was Eddie, and playwright-slash-screenwriter Richard O'Brien played the Doctor's faithful handyman, Riff Raff.
Lou Adler screened the finished movie, now called the Rocky Horror Picture Show, for the 20th Century Fox marketing team. It didn't go well. And when the film was given a test screening with an audience, half of them walked out. When the Rocky Horror Picture Show premiered in August of 1975, critics panned it, and it completely flopped at the box office.
After the dismal reviews, Adler sat on the curb outside the theater with Tim Deegan, who was in charge of the movie's advertising. The mood was glum. Then some college kids came up to them and said, we really liked your movie. That convinced Adler there was an audience out there for the film. They just had to find it somehow. Then Tim Deegan had an idea.
Why not try screening the movie at midnight? The Waverly Theater in New York was a venue known for showing offbeat films when the clock struck 12. It had learned that a different kind of audience shows up at midnight. On April Fool's Day, 1976, the Rocky Horror Picture Show began its first midnight screening. It was an immediate success.
The theater noticed that a group of 30 or 40 patrons would come every Friday night, go out to dinner, watch the movie, then party. It had become a ritual. So 20th Century Fox decided to screen it at midnight in Austin, Texas, Los Angeles, Seattle, and at the Roxy in Toronto. Soon, midnight screenings were happening in a number of major cities.
Five months later, something unexpected started to happen. The audience began shouting back at the screen. Sometimes they would shout out lines in unison with the on-screen characters. Sometimes they would shout out new lines, like, "'Watch out for that rock!' just before Brad and Janet's car got the flat." Soon, the audience started dressing up in costumes from the movie and bringing props.
They threw toast at the screen when the characters proposed a toast. They threw toilet paper whenever a character said, Great Scott! They threw confetti in the wedding scene and squirted water pistols during the rain scenes. All of this and more happened in theaters across the U.S. and at the Roxy in Toronto. People weren't just at a movie, they felt they were part of the movie.
And because of that, they kept coming back. Then, something else started to happen. audience members started acting out the scenes in front of the screen. Known as a shadow cast, people began dressing up as the movie's characters, delivering lines verbatim, and acting out the entire movie as it unfolded behind them.
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