THE YEAR 2006 PART 6

Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a long-running British music chart television programme, made and broadcast by the BBC. It was originally shown each week, mostly on BBC One, from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. Each weekly programme consisted of performances from some of that week's best-selling popular music artists.

Although the show was officially cancelled, it continues to run as an annual Christmas special. . It is also survived by a spin-off series known as TOTP2 (or Top of the Pops 2) which started in 1994 and continues to this day.

Top of the Pops has also been made available to television broadcasters in many different countries in the form of a franchise package. However, after some success, the majority of these have now also been cancelled.

Contents ] 1 History 1.1 The first show 1.2 "It's still number one" 1.3 All New Top of the Pops 1.4 The Final Countdown 1.5 After the end 1.6 Theme music 1.7 Miming 2 Missing episodes 3 Spin-offs 4 Send-ups 5 Local versions 5.1 Europe 5.2 United States 5.3 New Zealand 5.4 Africa, Asia and the Middle East 5.5 Latin America 6 Compilation albums 6.1 Number One in the Compilation Charts 7 Top of the Pops magazine 8 Songs which mention Top of the Pops 9 Trivia 10 List of performers 11 References 12 External links 12.1 Official 12.2 Videoclips 12.3 Episode guides and summaries 12.4 News articles

History

The first show

Top of the Pops began on New Year's Day 1964 in a studio (converted from a former church) on Dickenson Road in Longsight, Manchester, which the BBC had bought from Mancunian Films in 1954. DJ Jimmy Savile presented the first show, which featured (in order) The Rolling Stones with "I Wanna Be Your Man", Dusty Springfield with "I Only Want to be With You", the Dave Clark Five with "Glad All Over", The Hollies with "Stay", The Swinging Blue Jeans with "The Hippy Hippy Shake" and The Beatles with "I Want to Hold Your Hand", that week's number one. For the first three years Savile rotated with three other presenters: Alan Freeman, Pete Murray and David Jacobs. A Mancunian model, Samantha Juste, was the regular "disc girl". Some histories do not make it clear that The Beatles were only featured in what the BBC describes as a "promotional video".

"It's still number one"

Iconic Top of the Pops logo used from the 500th edition on 4 October 1973 until 27 March 1986 and revived in 3D form for the 'finale' in 2006

The show was originally intended to have only a few programmes but ran for over 42 years, reaching landmark episodes of 1000 and 2000 in 1983 and 2002 respectively. During its heyday in the 1970s, it attracted 15 million viewers each week . It was traditionally shown on a Thursday night, but was moved to a Friday in 1996, a change which caused some controversy as this placed the programme up against the hugely popular soap opera, Coronation Street, on ITV. This was when the major decline in audiences began as fans were forced to choose between TOTP and missing an episode of their favourite soap. The move was made due to the Atlanta 1996 olympics TV coverage, and said they would change the time slot back after the event.

The show saw many changes through the decades: in style, design, fashion and taste. It periodically (usually every three years) had some aspect of its idents, format, or set design altered in some way, keeping the show looking modern despite its age.

The show was closely associated with the BBC radio station Radio 1, usually being presented by DJs from the station (although from October 1991 to January 1994 no Radio 1 DJs presented the show). During the last few years of airing the association was not as close as it once was. In its heyday during the glam rock era of the early 1970s, the show featured the tightly choreographed dance troupe Pan's People (later succeeded by Ruby Flipper, Legs & Co. and Zoo), something which has been widely imitated on similar shows ever since. Pan's People were used when an act was unable to appear in person and no footage of them was available - a common occurrence in the era before promotional videos.

In the mid-1990s, Radio 1 producer Ric Blaxill was brought in to revamp the show. In one of the more radical relaunches in the programme's history, Blaxill handed presenting duties to a different celebrity each week. Presenters during this period included Kylie Minogue, Chris Evans, Chris Eubank, Damon Albarn and Jarvis Cocker - with an attempt to create an iconic 'golden mic' that was used by the various presenters. The set was revamped to include thousands of holes, through which beams of light would illuminate the artists. This period also coincided with the Britpop era.

For most of its history the show had very strict rules about which singles could be featured. A song could not appear if it was going down the charts, nor could any track appear on consecutive weeks unless it was at number one. These rules were abandoned in 1997, possibly as a response to the changing nature of the Top 40 (since the mid-1990s climbers in the charts had become a rarity, with almost all singles peaking at their debut position, though singles began climbing again in 2006 after a change in the rules)

All New Top of the Pops

On 28 November 2003, the show saw one of its most radical overhauls in what was widely reported as a make-or-break attempt to revitalise the long-running series. In a break with the previous format, the show played more up-and-coming tracks ahead of any chart success, and also featured interviews with artists. The launch show, which was live and an hour long, was notable for an audacious performance of Flip/Reverse by Blazin' Squad, featuring hordes of hooded teenagers choreographed to dance around the outside of BBC TV Centre. The new show was hosted by MTV presenter Tim Kash until his contract expired in August 2004 and was not renewed. The show was co-hosted by Reggie Yates and Fearne Cotton every Friday night until 11 July 2005.

By November 2004, viewing figures had plummeted to below three million, prompting announcement by the BBC that the show was going to move, again, to Sunday evenings on BBC Two, thus losing the prime-time slot on BBC One that it had maintained for forty years.. This move was widely reported as a final 'sidelining' of the show, and perhaps signalled its likely cancellation. At the time, it was insisted that this was so that the show would air immediately after the official announcement of the new top 40 chart on Radio 1, as it was thought that by the following Friday, the chart seemed out-of-date.

The first edition on BBC Two was broadcast on 17 July 2005 at 7pm with presenter Fearne Cotton. After the move to Sundays, Cotton continued to host with a different guest presenter each week, such as Rufus Hound or Richard Bacon. Viewing figures averaged around 1.5 million.

The Final Countdown

On 20 June 2006, the show was formally cancelled and it was announced that the last edition would be broadcast on 30 July 2006. Edith Bowman co-presented its hour-long swansong, along with Sir Jimmy Savile (who had presented the first show), Reggie Yates, Mike Read, Pat Sharp, Sarah Cawood, Dave Lee Travis, Rufus Hound, Tony Blackburn and Janice Long. The show was recorded on 26 July 2006 and featured archive footage and tributes, including The Rolling Stones - the very first band to appear on Top of the Pops - opening with The Last Time, the Spice Girls, David Bowie, Wham!, Madonna, Beyoncé, Gnarls Barkley, Kylie Minogue, Sophie Ellis Bextor and Robbie Williams. The show closed with Shakira, as her track Hips Don't Lie featuring Wyclef Jean climbed back up to number one on the UK Singles Chart earlier in the day. The show ended with Sir Jimmy turning the lights off in the empty studio. Fearne Cotton, who was the current presenter was unavailable to co-host for the final edition due to her filming of ITV1's Love Island in Fiji but kicked off the show with a quick introduction recorded on location, saying "It's still number one, it's Top Of The Pops". BARB reported the final show's viewing figures as 3.98 million

After the end

The magazine, the website, international versions, the Christmas specials and TOTP2 are to continue despite the axing. Some staff also suggested that the show will return after a hiatus of a few years on the documentary 'Top of the Pops: The True Story' shown on BBC2 after the final show had aired.

The 2006 Christmas edition was scheduled for its usual hour long Christmas day slot on BBC One and presented by regular presenters Fearne Cotton, Reggie Yates and Edith Bowman . The show style and format returned to normal (for a post 2002 Christmas edition) featuring almost all new performances on the most recent set design with the same on screen graphics and logos. No reference to the previous 'finale' was made.

Theme music

A version of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" by C. C. S. was used as the show's theme tune for most of the 1970s, and also in a remixed version between 1998 and 2003, although ironically the band never performed on the show. Between 1978 and 1980 the show had no regular theme music at all, instead using a song from the current charts to accompany the Top 30 run-down at the start of the programme - but "Whole Lotta Love" was re-introduced as the theme (albeit briefly) in 1980. There was also no theme music at all between Summer 1997 and Spring 1998, instead the introduction of the first performance played out to the title sequence.

In 1981, the album track , "Yellow Pearl" by Phil Lynott was commissioned as the new theme music. This was replaced in 1986 with "The Wizard", a composition by Paul Hardcastle. The final theme was a remixed version of that used between 1991 and 1995, composed by Tony Gibber.

Miming

Initially acts performing on the show mimed to the commercialy released record, but in July 1966, after discussions with the Musicians' Union miming was banned. After a few weeks during which some bands' attempts to play as well as on their records were somewhat lacking, a compromise was reached whereby a specially recorded backing track was permitted - as long as all the musicians on the track were present in the studio. Vocals were still performed "live". and the TOTP Orchestra, led by Johnny Pearson augmented the tracks when necessary. This set-up continued until 1980, when a protracted Musicians' Union strike resulted in the dropping of the live orchestra altogether and the use of pre-recorded tracks This accounts for a number of acts who never appeared on the show due to their reluctance to perform in this way. Highlights have included Jimi Hendrix who, on hearing someone else's track being played by mistake (in the days of live broadcast), mumbled "I don't know the words to that one, Man", Shane Macgowan of the Pogues' drunken performance of "Fairytale of New York", a legendary performance of 'Roll With It' by Oasis in which Noel and Liam Gallagher exchanged roles with Noel miming to Liam's singing track and Liam pretending to play guitar (which he was hopeless at) and John Peel's appearance as the mandolin soloist for Rod Stewart on "Maggie May". One memorable incident was the performance of Garden Party where Fish of Marillion mimed perfectly aside from the line "I'm miming" (which was changed from the original "I'm fucking" for broadcast purposes), when he simply pointed at his closed lips.

For virtually the whole "Live Sound" period, the Sound Supervisor was the late Dickie Chamberlain, who so skillfully reproduced the sound of the original discs with a fraction of the kit available in the recording studios. One of the acts on that first 1966 programme was David and Jonathan (Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway) Their recording manager, George Martin attended rehearsals to oversee the sound balance. He left, satisfied, after about ten minutes.

The later miming policy also led to the occasional technical hitch. A famous example of this is the performance of "Martha's Harbour" in 1988 by the duo All About Eve where the televised audience could hear the song but the band could not. As the opening verse of the song beamed out of the nation's television sets, the unknowing lead singer Julianne Regan remained silent on a stool on stage while her backing guitarist did not play. An unseen stagehand apparently prompted them that something was wrong in time to mime along to the second verse.

For a few years from 1991 the show adopted a live vocal to pre-recorded backing track policy. Kurt Cobain on "Smells Like Teen Spirit" dropped his voice an octave and changed the opening line to "Load up on drugs, kill your friends"; the band also made it very clear that they were not playing their instruments. (Kurt later said during an interview that he wanted to sound more like Morrissey during the performance) — it also exposed a number of poor live singers, and was dropped as a general rule.

In its final few years miming had become less and less common, especially for bands, as studio technology became more reliable and artists were given the freedom to choose their performance style. Former Executive Producer, Andi Peters, stated that there was "no policy" on miming and said that it was entirely up to the performer if they wanted to sing live or mime.

Missing episodes

Because of the BBC's former policy of deleting old programmes (see Wiping), the vast majority of the episodes from the first ten years of the programme's history have been lost, including the only live appearance by The Beatles.

Of the first 500 episodes (1964-73) only about 20 complete recordings remain in the BBC archives. The earliest surviving footage dates from February 26, 1964 and consists of performances by Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas and The Dave Clark Five. Some programmes exist only partially (largely performances that were either pre-recorded or re-used in later editions). There are also cases of shows that only exist in their raw, unedited form. Many are also silent on the presenter links. The oldest complete episode in existence was originally transmitted on Boxing Day in 1967 (only four complete recordings from the 1960s survive). The most recent that is not held is dated September 8, 1977. All editions after this date exist in full.

The April 5, 1984 episode was never made, as BBC1 was off air the entire day due to industrial action. Additionally, the programme was forced off the air for several weeks by industrial action by the Musicians' Union in both 1974 and 1980.

Spin-offs

Top of the Pops has sister show called TOTP2 which uses archive footage from as early as the late 1960s. It began on 17 September 1994 and has only been shown on BBC Two. In summer 2004 BBC Two's controller, Roly Keating, announced that it was being "rested". Shortly after UKTV G2 began showing re-edited versions of earlier programmes with re-recorded dialogue. Finally after a two year break TOTP2 returned to the BBC Two schedules for a new series on Saturday 30 September 2006 in an evening timeslot It was still narrated by Steve Wright and featured a mixture of performances from the TOTP archive and newly-recorded performances. The first edition of this series featured new performances by Razorlight and Nelly Furtado recorded after the final episode of Top of the Pops.

The defunct channel UK Play created two spin offs; TOTP+ Plus and TOTP @ Play (1998 - 2000). BBC Choice featured a show called TOTP The New Chart (5 December 1999 - 26 March 2000) and on BBC Two TOTP+ (8 October 2000 to 26 August 2001). This is not to be confused with the UK Play version of the same name. A more recent spin-off (now ended) was Top of the Pops Saturday and its successor Top of the Pops Reloaded. This was shown on Saturday mornings on BBC One and featured competitions, star interviews, video reviews and some Top of the Pops performances. This was aimed at a younger audience and was part of the CBBC Saturday morning line-up.

Send-ups

A number of performers have sent up the format in various ways. Mainly this has been performers who disliked the mime format of the show, often as a more effective protest against this rather than just refusing to appear.

• While performing their 1982 hit "Jackie Wilson Said" the band Dexys Midnight Runners were seen performing in front of a projection of the darts player Jocky Wilson.

Opinions differ as to whether this was deliberate or accidental.When Oasis performed "Whatever" for Top of the Pops in 1994 they mimed and one of the cello players from the symphony was replaced by rhythm guitarist Bonehead, who clearly had no idea how the instrument is supposed to be played. Towards the end of the song, he gave up the pretense and started using the bow to conduct. A woman plays his rhythm guitar.

• For the 1984 Christmas Day edition all of the performers from Band Aid had been booked to appear apart from Bono. The performance of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" witnessed the unlikely scene of Paul Weller lip-synching to Bono's vocals. Similarly, in 1985, when the Eurythmics were at number one with "There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)", Annie Lennox was seen miming the song's harmonica solo even though it is recognisably the work of Stevie Wonder.
• In a 2005 performance of "Lyla", Liam Gallagher made no secret of the fact that he was miming his lyrics by walking away from the microphone and chewing gum when he was supposed to be singing.
• Faith No More lead singer Mike Patton also showed he was obviously miming a performance by sticking his tongue out of the side of his mouth during close-up shots.
• In Nirvana's only performance on Top of the Pops, frontman Kurt Cobain "played" his guitar with his fingers inches away from the frets, drummer Dave Grohl danced around in his seat for most of the performance, and bassist Krist Novoselic waved his instrument around his head. Cobain also sang in a low, dramatic opera voice.
• Singer Les Gray of Mud went on stage to perform with a ventriloquist dummy during the performance of Lonely this Christmas and had the dummy lip-synch to the voice-over in the middle of the song.
• EMF appeared on the show with one of the guitarists strumming along while wearing boxing gloves.
• In Blur's performance of "Charmless Man" in 1995, Dave Rowntree decided to play with oversized drumsticks, while Graham Coxon, played a mini guitar.^{[citation needed]}
• In Green Day's first Top of the Pops appearance in 1994, the band played the song "Welcome to Paradise". Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong wore an otherwise plain white t-shirt with the phrase "Who am I fooling anyway?" handwritten on it, most likely a reference to his own miming during the performance. He could also be seen not playing his guitar during the instrumental bridge in the song.
• The performance of "Maggie May" by Rod Stewart and The Faces featured John Peel miming on mandolin. Near the end of the song, Rod and the Faces begin to kick around a football. This is despite the fact that the music can be still heard playing the background.
• The Eels performed "Novocaine for the Soul" playing on toy instruments, which they then trashed.
• In 1989, The Cure performed "Lullaby" on TOTP. The studio director ordered that there were to be no close-up shots of Robert Smith as his appearance - he was heavily made up - might scare young children. The Cure were known for their abhorrence for miming their songs whilst on TOTP and on several occasions made it obvious they weren't playing their parts - using such stunts as playing guitar left-handed, miming very badly out of synch and dressing their instruments up in clothes.

Local versions

Europe

The TOTP format was sold to RTL in Germany in the 1990s, and aired on Saturday afternoons. It was very successful for a long time, with a compilation album series and magazine. However, in 2006 it was announced that the German show would be ending. The Italian and French version of the show ended by September 2006. Domestic versions of the show continue to run in The Netherlands until the end of December 2006 . BBC Prime used to broadcast re-edited episodes of the BBC version, the weekend after it was transmitted in the UK.

United States

Top of the Pops had short-lived fame in the United States. In 1987, the CBS television network decided to try an American version of the show. It was hosted by Nia Peeples and even showed performances from the BBC version of the programme. The show was presented on late Friday nights and lasted almost a year.

In 2002, BBC America presented the BBC version of Top of the Pops as part of their weekend schedule. The network would get the episodes one week after they were transmitted in the UK. BBC America then tinkered with the show by cutting a few minutes out of each show and moving it to a weekday time slot.

On January 23, 2006, record producer Lou Pearlman made a deal to bring "Top of the Pops" back to the airwaves in the United States. It is expected to be similar to the 1987 version, but it will also utilize the Billboard magazine music charts, most notably the Hot 100 chart. It was supposed to be planned for a possible 2006 or 2007 launch, but with the cancellation of the UK version no word on whether this US edition will go forward as it has yet to find a production company or distributor to partner with.

On August 19, 2006, VH1 aired the UK series' final episode.

New Zealand

The Top of the Pops brand has also been exported to New Zealand which for many years had to rely on music-video only shows to demonstrate its Top 20 (as well as the occasional season of the UK version of TOTP) as the world's top acts found New Zealand just too far away from the major markets to visit regularly. This all changed when the New Zealand government suggested a voluntary New Zealand music quota on radio (basically a threat that if the stations did not impose a quota themselves then one would be imposed on them). This worked and suddenly the amount of indigenous music played on radio stations shot up, as did the number of New Zealand hits in the top 20. Therefore a new version of a show like Top of the Pops became feasible for the first time, and the show was commissioned by TVNZ. The show began in early 2004 with host Alex Behan. The hour-long show (as opposed to the 30 minute UK version) which is broadcast at 5pm on Saturdays on TV 2 (New Zealand) contains a mixture of songs recorded in the Auckland TVNZ studios as well as performances from the international versions of the show. The New Zealand Top 20 singles and Top 10 albums are also featured. Alex stayed as host for two years before Bede Skinner took over. Despite a popular fan base in early 2006 TVNZ announced that Top of the Pops has been axed and ideas for new music shows are currently being considered.

Free-to-air music channel C4 then picked up the UK version of Top Of The Pops and aired it on Saturday's at 8pm with a repeat screening on Thursdays. However since the UK version has recently been axed itself, this arrangement has obviously now ended.

Africa, Asia and the Middle East

An edited version of the UK show can be seen on BBC Prime, the weekend after UK transmission

Latin America

A complete version of the UK show can be seen on People+Arts, two weeks after the UK transmission.

Compilation albums

A number of compilation albums using the Top of the Pops brand have been issued over the years. The first one to reach the charts was "BBC TV's The Best Of Top of the Pops" on the Super Beeb record label in 1975, which reached number 21.

Starting in 1968 and carrying on through the 1970s a rival series of "Top of the Pops" albums were produced, however these had no connection with the television series except for its name. They were a series of budget compilation cover albums of current chart hits recorded by anonymous session singers and musicians released on the Hallmark record label. They had initially reached the charts but were later disallowed due to a change in the criteria for entering the charts. These albums continued to be produced until the early 1980s, when the advent of compilation albums featuring the original versions of hits, such as the Now That's What I Call Music series, led to a steep decline in their popularity.

In the 1990s, the BBC "Top of the Pops" brand was again licensed for use in a tie-in compilation series. Starting in 1995 with Sony Music's Columbia Records label, these double disc collections moved to the special marketing arm of Polygram/Universal Music TV, before becoming a sister brand of the Now That's What I Call Music range in the EMI/Virgin/Universal joint venture.

Similarly to the roles of "Top of the Pops" on BBC 1 and BBC 2 in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the compilation albums range featured current hits for the main series and classic hits (such as 70s Rock) for the "Top of the Pops 2" spin-offs.

Number One in the Compilation Charts

These albums in the series reached No. 1:

• Top of the Pops 1 (Columbia Records - 1995)
• Top of the Pops '99 - Volume 2 (Universal Music TV -1999)
• Top of the Pops 2000 - Volume Two (BBC Music/Universal Music TV -2000)

Top of the Pops magazine

Top of the Pops magazine has been running since February 1995, and filled the void in the BBC magazine portfolio where Number One magazine used to be.

An early feature on the Spice Girls coined the famous "Spice" nicknames for each member (Baby, Ginger, Posh, Scary and Sporty) that stayed with them throughout their career as a group and beyond.

The BBC have announced that the magazine will continue in publication despite the end of the television series.

Songs which mention Top of the Pops

This song or music-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

• The Scottish punk band The Rezillos lampooned the show as a vehicle for vapid commercialism and for paying little or no attention to talented, unknown bands, in their song "Top of the Pops." Ironically the band actually ended up performing the song on the programme (twice) when it entered the charts.

• The Rezillos - Top Of The Pops excerpt (file info) — play in browser (beta)
  • An excerpt from The Rezillos' Top Of The Pops
  • Problems listening to the file? See media help.

• "C-30 C-60 C-90 GO!", originally by Bow Wow Wow and covered by Seattle, WA band Pretty Girls Make Graves
• A song entitled "Top of the Pops" appeared on the Kinks album, Lola versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One
• Rat Trap by The Boomtown Rats
• Top Of The Pops by indie band 28 If (named after the car on the cover of The Beatles' Abbey Road album).
• "Me Plus One" by Anne Lilia Berge Strand or more commonly Annie
• The song "Formed a Band" by Art Brut includes in its lyrics, "We’re gonna write a song as universal as happy Birthday, that makes sure everybody knows that everything is going to be OK, we’re going to take that song and we’re going to play it 8 weeks in a row on Top of the Pops." Since the programme's cancellation, the band has changed the lyric when performing live to "we're going to make it the theme tune to the new Top of the Pops.". In their song "Bad Weekend," the band also sings, "sometimes it's hard to stop when your heart is set on Top of the Pops, Top of the Pops." Art Brut LyricsIn addition to this, Art Brut & Friends recorded a song titled "Top of the Pops", lyrics being the name of their band followed by TOTP e.g Art Brut! Top of the Pops! The Long Blondes! Top of the Pops!
• Akira the Don's single, 'Living in the Future'
• Bug Powder Dust by Bomb the Bass contains the lyrics "Top of the pops like the Lulu's show".
• The Smithereens recorded a song entitled "Top of the Pops" on their album Blow Up.
• Billy Bragg's "Waiting For The Great Leap Forward" boasts the lyric, "It's a mighty long way down rock 'n roll; from Top of the Pops to drawing the dole" (this is in turn a pun on a different lyric from Mott The Hoople's "All The Way From Memphis").
• Also, Bragg's "Moving The Goalposts" contains the line, "I dreamt of you as I walked to the shops, you were dancing with the wallies on Top of the Pops".
• Carter USM's song "Glam Rock Cops" has the lyric "I've been fitted up for size for Top Of The Pops / In a uniform supplied by the glam rock cops". Unlike most other examples here it was actually performed on Top of the Pops.
• B.A. Robertson's "Knocked It Off" mentions Top of the Pops; similarly, this was actually performed on the show, and peaked at number 8.
• Generation X's "Promises Promises" includes in the lyrics "Soon you'll get your gear from Marks and Sparks / Punk'll take over Top of the Pops"
• Terence Trent D'Arby in the song "Penelope Please" from his album "Symphony Or Damn": "You will still be home in time / To watch the 'Pops featuring Chrissie Hynde"
• The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (who later became The KLF) sampled nearly three minutes of Top of the Pops on their album 1987.
• Mott The Hoople's song "Saturday Gigs" has the lyric "Take the mick outta Top of the Pops / we play better than they do"
• Jay-Z's song "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" from the Black Album has the lyric "Came from the bottom the bottom, to the top of the pops/Nigga London, Japan and I'm straight off the block"

THE YEAR 2006 PART 5

last year GOOGLE paid $ 1.65 billion for the you tube website and thats what John Cloud have to say about it

The Gurus of YouTube

By JOHN CLOUD

Let's say you're in your 20s and you start your first Internet company. Let's say 21 months later you sell it for $1.65 billion. What happens next?

At first, not much. Some of the money is tied up in escrow, and the traditions of modesty in Silicon Valley require a period of restraint before you spend in the big, life-changing way that your wealth will permit.

Still, the world wants to talk to you. Japanese television, Argentine newspapers, a bunch of French journalists and what seems like every news outlet in the U.S. Friends you haven't heard from in a long time send e-mails. Hey, how's it going? Long time no see! BTW I have this great business idea...

And so even though you've just left a photo shoot with an imperious, name-dropping L.A. photographer and ride to the airport in a jet-black Escalade, when you arrive at LAX, you have to stand in the United Economy line because you're still flying coach. Having removed your shoes to get through security—an indignity you'll never again endure if one day you spend an inconsequential few million on a jet—you walk past a newsstand to see your company on the cover of Wired and GQ.

"Oh, and have you seen Fortune?... Yeah, we're in there too."

And there they are: Steve Chen, 28, and Chad Hurley, 29, two of the three founders of YouTube (the other, Jawed Karim, went to grad school last year), a couple of boy-men looking out from a magazine and up at themselves in real life. Then they board the plane, Steve way in the back and Chad closer to the front after paying an extra $24 for an "Economy Plus" seat.

Such is life these days for Chad and Steve—and because they are still young enough to get the occasional pimple, I don't mind calling them Chad and Steve. They are premoguls, near magnates. They foreshadow but don't quite yet embody the wealth and power that accompany their role as the new demiurges of the online world. At a GQ party in West Hollywood, Calif., a few weeks ago, Al Gore tapped Steve on the shoulder outside the bathroom to congratulate him on the success of YouTube. Chad chatted with Leonardo DiCaprio, handsome and taller than you think and ashing his cigarette on the floor. But at the end of the night, the YouTube boys were hanging with the B crowd, Steve eating a burger (despite a disapproving glare from his girlfriend Julie) and Chad drinking until 2:30 a.m. with a guy who was in the Jackass movies—not even the main guy. Guys, you gotta know when to leave the party. (When Leo does.)

But of course the party is just starting for Chad and Steve, whose omnium-gatherum of online videos has captivated the Web for the past year, at least since a Saturday Night Live digital short called Lazy Sunday was forwarded millions of times last December, increasing visits to youtube.com 83%. (If you don't know Lazy Sunday, don't tell anyone, particularly anyone under 30. Just quietly YouTube it now.)

YouTube became a phenomenon in 2006 for many reasons, but one in particular: it was both easy and edgy, a rare combination. You can watch videos on the site without downloading any software or even registering. YouTube is to video browsing what a Wal-Mart Supercenter is to shopping: everything is there, and all you have to do is walk in the door. Want to see Mikhail Baryshnikov performing in Giselle in 1977? A user named "goldenidol" uploaded a clip in August. Want to see a sure-to-make-you-queasy video of a girl snorting a strand of cooked spaghetti and then choking it out her mouth? You're in luck: "asemoknyo" put that clip on YouTube last month. All it costs is a few moments away from whatever you're supposed to be doing on your computer—and who doesn't have 30 sec. to watch that priceless clip of Faith Hill mouthing "WHAT?" when she lost a Country Music Association Award this year? (That video has been viewed at least 6 million times.)

YouTube is a new kind of medium, but it's still mass. Your grandmother could use it (a search for "grandmother" on YouTube yields more than 1,800 videos). But because the site doesn't prescreen uploads—which is a lot cheaper for Chad and Steve than hiring a bunch of editors to police millions of users—it ends up hosting a lot of out-there stuff as well: obscure bands, tear-jerking video diaries, "dead dog tricks" (don't ask), a "German toilet" (please don't ask)... The unmediated free-for-all encouraged the valuable notion that the site was grass-roots, community-run and—to use an overworked term—"viral." These are partial fictions, of course. YouTube controls the "Featured Videos" on its home page, which can dramatically popularize a posting that otherwise might fade. Also, the video in the top-right section of the home page is an advertisement, even though it doesn't always look like one. There's no porn on the site—overtly sexual material is flagged by users and removed by YouTube, usually very quickly. But there is an endless supply of kinda weird, kinda cool, kinda inspiring stuff there, which means you can waste hours on Chad and Steve's site.

That, in turn, means advertisers want to be on YouTube, which is why Google paid so much for it. If even, say, 10% of the $54 billion spent on TV advertising annually migrates to video sites like YouTube in the next few years, we will pity Chad and Steve for selling for a mere $1.65 billion. But for now, with YouTube still unproven—it has never made much money, and it could be crushed by lawsuits from content creators whose material shows up on the site without permission—the blockbuster acquisition price carries a whiff of the late-'90s Silicon Valley gold rush. It now falls to Chad, the CEO, and Steve, who runs the tech side, to prove that what they created with Karim will not become the next broadcast.com, the video provider Yahoo! bought for $5.7 billion in 1999—and which now doesn't exist.

Turning YouTube from a sensational rumpus to a profitable corporation will require Chad and Steve to thread the company through legal disputes, hire at least 100% more employees than they have now, negotiate with the biggest ad and media companies in the world, maintain their unique identity without getting swallowed up by Google, please shareholders, manage p.r. and flawlessly execute a thousand other tasks that far more experienced executives have flubbed. All while Chad has to make time for his wife and two small children, Steve needs to buy a car to replace his crappy Jeep Wrangler, and the broadband in the YouTube office is so slow, it takes forever to watch their own site. Can a couple of kids who grew up nowhere near Silicon Valley handle all this? CHAD MEREDITH HURLEY has the lanky and languorous carriage of a teenager who just rolled out of bed. He wears a stubble beard over a complexion that doesn't see enough sun, and he has a habit of pushing his chin-length hair back from his forehead so that by the end of the day it's a bit oily and Gordon Gekko-ish.

Raised in the southeastern Pennsylvania town of Birdsboro, Chad is the middle child of Donald, a financial consultant, and JoAnn, a schoolteacher. He was an arty kid, always watercoloring and sculpting, which is not to say he ran with the artsy crowd. There is nothing affected or capering about Chad—his temperature runs so low he comes off at first as a dullard—and it's easy to imagine him as a slightly introverted, earnest boy trying to sell artwork (not lemonade) from his front lawn, as he did in an unsuccessful venture that taught him the difference between art and commerce.

Chad was unusual in that his artistic proclivities coincided with an interest in business and technology. In ninth grade, he built an amplifier that won third place in a national electronics competition. By the time he was in college, he would hole up for hours online, doing those things boys do these days—studying Web design, playing games, experimenting with animation. He did not come equipped with a sense of entitlement or snobbery; his brother Brent, 27, told me that to earn money during one summer in college, Chad joined a pyramid-marketing scheme for knife sets. "He would come over to our friends' houses and cut through a soda can or something," says Brent. "One of our family friends, they joke now, 'Hey, you sold us these knives and look at you now.'"

If it's true that people make their own luck, Chad made a lot of it. In 1999, he was finishing up at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he had majored in computer science before switching to graphic design and printmaking. ("Computer science, that was too technical, too mechanical for Chad," says his father Don. "He wanted to be on the creative side." Chad spent much of his time running for the cross-country team, and he was in top shape at the time. The not insubstantial paunch he has added since then is a source of some consternation.) Around graduation, Chad read an article about a new company called PayPal, which back then was trying to enable PDA users to beam money to each other. Chad sent PayPal his resume, and on a Wednesday evening he came downstairs to announce he had a job interview on Friday. The company flew him to California and asked him to show his skills by designing a company logo (it's still the PayPal logo to this day). That Sunday, PayPal's CEO offered Chad a job as the company's first designer. He slept on a friend's floor for a few weeks, scrounging money for pizza before he got his first paycheck.

It was a propitious move; Chad had joined a firm that would soon abandon the handheld-payment concept in favor of something far more lucrative: securing online transactions. In 2002 eBay bought PayPal for $1.54 billion, and as an early employee, Chad walked away with enough to buy a few luxuries—including his Tag Heuer watch—and plenty of seed money for a future venture. "Either he was incredibly brilliant and he saw the opportunity, or he was really lucky—I don't know," says Ryan Donahue, who was PayPal's second designer and roomed with Chad for a time. "But to hit gold with your first job out of college is pretty rare. And then for his first company to be YouTube, he's gotta be a smart guy."

Chad was also lucky to meet his future wife, Kathy Clark, at a party in 2000. Clark shared his interest in technology and in starting a family. She also turned out to be the daughter of James Clark, the legendary Silicon Valley entrepreneur who founded or co-founded three billion-dollar-plus companies: Silicon Graphics, Netscape and Healtheon. His daughter, 36, is an intensely private person—she was reticent when I visited the Clark-Hurley home in Menlo Park, Calif., for a brief meal of takeout burritos in their trophy kitchen (Wolf range, lovely). She asked that I not reveal the names of the kids. Kathy and Chad have never before publicly discussed her father's identity. Their reluctance is understandable: Jim Clark is one of the valley's most revered figures, and because he runs a media-sharing website—Shutterfly, founded in 1999—it would be tempting to think he was the real force behind the video-sharing site his son-in-law was starting. But Chad says Clark has had only a tiny role in YouTube, merely offering the boys advice in 2005, when the start-up was seeking its initial round of funding. "Basically I have never wanted to mix money and family, so we haven't talked much about it," Chad told me.

Chad's greatest stroke of luck at PayPal was meeting Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, two PayPal engineers with whom he would occasionally bat around ideas for start-ups. Karim, 27, enrolled at Stanford last year to pursue a master's in computer science, and today there's some tension between him and the other founders, who have become famous while he toils in a small, modestly furnished dorm room. Although Karim is named on YouTube's site as a co-founder, Chad and Steve have promoted a highly simplified history of the company's founding that largely excludes him. In the stripped-down version—repeated in dozens of news accounts—Chad and Steve got the idea in the winter of 2005, after they had trouble sharing videos online that had been shot at a dinner party at Steve's San Francisco apartment. Karim says the dinner party never happened and that the seed idea of video sharing was his—although he is quick to say its realization in YouTube required "the equal efforts of all three of us."

Chad and Steve both say that the party did occur but that Karim wasn't there. "Chad and I are pretty modest, and Jawed has tried to seize every opportunity to take credit," Steve told me. But he also acknowledged that the notion that YouTube was founded after a dinner "was probably very strengthened by marketing ideas around creating a story that was very digestible."

No company, of course, is ever founded in a single moment, and YouTube evolved over several months. Chad and Steve agree that Karim deserves credit for the early idea that became, in Steve's words, "the original goal that we were working toward in the very beginning": a video version of HOTorNOT.com.

HOTorNOT is a dating site that encourages you to rate, on a scale of 1 to 10, the attractiveness of potential mates. It's a brutal, singles-bar version of MySpace, but Karim says it was a pioneer: "I was incredibly impressed with HOTorNOT, because it was the first time that someone had designed a website where anyone could upload content that everyone else could view. That was a new concept because up until that point, it was always the people who owned the website who would provide the content."

The idea of a video version of HOTorNOT lasted only a couple of months. "It was too narrow," says Chad. He notes that another early idea was to help people share videos for online auctions. But as the site went live in the spring of 2005, the founders realized that people were posting whatever videos they wanted. Many kids were linking to YouTube from their MySpace pages, and YouTube's growth piggybacked on MySpace's. (MySpace remains YouTube's largest single source of U.S. traffic, according to Hitwise.) "In the end, we just sat back," says Chad—and the free-for-all began. Within months—even before Lazy Sunday—investors such as Time Warner and Sequoia Capital, a Menlo Park investment firm, began to approach YouTube about buying in. Big advertisers started paying attention in October 2005, when a cool Nike ad-that-doesn't-look-like-an-ad of the Brazilian soccer player Ronaldinho went viral in a big way on YouTube. Sequoia—which has helped finance Apple, Google and other valley greats—ended up providing about $8.5 million in 2005—just in time for Steve to avoid having to increase his credit-card limit yet again to pay for various tech expenses. STEVE SHIH CHEN has always been something of a risk taker. He left the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign a semester and a half early to work for PayPal. His family was wary: "We told him it was risky; he just had a few months left" in college, says his brother Ricky, 26. "But he was determined to give it a shot." Steve was drawn to PayPal partly because several U. of I. alums worked there, including PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, who in turn was eager to hire Steve because of his educational background. Steve had attended not only U. of I.—which has a well-respected computer-science program—but also the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA), a state-funded boarding school. "IMSA plus U. of I. is generally a very winning formula," says Levchin, who says the combination produces "hard-core smart, hardworking, nonspoiled" young engineers who are perfect for start-ups. "The kind of people that imsa attracts are the kind of people very prone to choose their own path," he says. They also grow up quickly, since IMSA feels more like a college than a high school. It's coed and highly competitive, the schoolwork is college level, and kids spend every possible second on the Internet.

Which isn't to say Steve is a geek—at least not an irretrievable geek. Chad gets more attention for his laid-back cool look, but Steve is actually more fun to hang out with, particularly since he started drinking a year and a half ago (right around the time YouTube was founded; he jokingly wonders if there's a connection). Steve seems to wear the responsibilities of the company more lightly than Chad, and he has absorbed less of the heavy p.r. coaching. Steve, for instance, is willing to speculate about what his wealth might mean for him: "It's funny, you know, Chad and I will probably, are definitely at YouTube for the next five years. But you do start wondering, What's next? Now that you have some cash, and it's like, Well, if I could live in any city, where would I live?"

And?

"New York, in spite of the weather, is a cool place." For now, Steve lives in the San Francisco apartment he bought a bit rashly in 2005, when he had just left PayPal and YouTube was in its infancy.

Steve was born in Taipei and has his own interesting relationship with luck. When he was a little kid, maybe 6, his mother took him to see a fortune teller who told him he would never be rich. "And that's kind of stayed with me ever since," he told me. The experience left him with a sense of dread that he takes half-seriously. "We haven't actually seen any of the money [from the Google deal] yet," he says with a laugh, "and I keep thinking there will be some legal complication, or it will fall through somehow."

But things always seem to work out for Steve, who carries an aura of mischief with him like a cloud of cigarette smoke. He drinks cappuccino well into the night and doesn't get to work until noon approaches. Levchin says that when Steve was an engineer at PayPal, he quickly established himself as the guy who could find the "shortest, cleverest path instead of hammering your head against the wall... He'd be like, 'Yeah, I can get this feature done fast.' And the QA [quality assurance] team would be like, 'Oh, man, Chen wrote this. Great. I'm going to be QAing this for a while.' Because he would definitely take short cuts. But most people wouldn't really notice, and the product would be out faster."

As YouTube developed, Chad and Steve's complementary skills began to mesh. After Chad left PayPal in 2003, it seemed possible he would do something more artistic than be a CEO; he designed messenger bags, and he did a bit of work on a film Levchin helped fund, Thank You for Smoking. "He is sort of an anomaly," says Donahue, his former roommate and the founder of HourTown.com. "Because if you look at the successful start-up stories, the formulaic founders' team is usually an engineer and a business person, or two engineers. It's rarely a designer or a truly creative person." But YouTube's success owes partly to its retro name, simple logo and alternative feel, all of which Chad contributed while Steve was making sure the videos played quickly and easily.

A mentor had also arrived with the Sequoia financing: Pierre Lamond, 76. In terms of Silicon Valley stature, Lamond approaches Chad's father-in-law Jim Clark. A founder of National Semiconductor, Lamond started at Sequoia in 1981. He monitors his investments closely, and he enjoyed receiving daily e-mails from Chad and Steve (many sent late at night) on various site metrics. He was pleasantly surprised to discover that Chad and Steve were great listeners—a rare quality in the genius culture of the valley—and that they spent money very carefully. Whenever site growth would plateau, Lamond would call them and say, "'What happened?' And they would tell me, 'We're running out of storage capacity.'" Lamond sometimes had to push them to buy more.

Early on, Chad and Steve made a crucial good decision: despite pressure from advertisers, they would not force users to sit through ads before videos played. Pre-roll ads would have helped their bottom line in the struggling months, but the site would never have gained its mythological community-driven status. It would have seemed simply like another Big Media site.

The question is, How do they preserve the site's underground image now that YouTube is merely a bijou in the Google empire? As it happens, Google executives are powerfully aware of this problem, and they are sending outward signals that YouTube will remain independent. Google recently sent a team of facilities people to the YouTube office outside San Francisco to ask how the YouTubers want the place decorated (YouTube moved to the old Gap offices in San Bruno before the acquisition, and they haven't had time to fix up the space). "The direction we were given," Google's facilities manager, Ninette Wong, told Chad in a meeting, "was to really get information from you, Chad—you, the man!—and to understand how to integrate the YouTube brand into the work space... It's really to kind of keep Google separate from YouTube." With the old start-up frugality still in mind, Chad said that his coders don't need more space to work—"They don't complain"—and that greenery is a low priority because "I hear it's expensive to maintain the plants at Google."

Google will appreciate his thrifty approach, but it's unlikely that the company knows the extent of YouTube's current independence. In a recent YouTube management meeting I sat in on, Gideon Yu, late of Yahoo! and now cfo at YouTube, told Chad and Steve, "The finance team [at Google] has been pushing me really hard on budgeting, your favorite topic. So what I'm telling them and what I'm telling us are"—he paused—"different."

A nervous laugh shot through the room, but Yu pressed on: "What I'm telling them is that there's no way we're going to get them any budgetary numbers—that it's just impossible because we have no idea what the integration looks like, blah, blah, blah. And they're buying it, a little bit. But I still think that the 'us' team, here, should put together some kind of rudimentary kind of plan... even if we don't share that upward."

To be sure, Google will get some control for its $1.65 billion. YouTube's managers must now report to Chad or Steve and a corresponding Google exec. That prompted Suzie Reider, chief marketing officer, to ask the boys whether she now has two bosses. Without skipping a beat, Steve replied, "You only have to listen half the time." Playful as always, he added that he didn't think he was going to use a Google-supplied BlackBerry that would be fitted with Google's mail and calendar system.

The biggest threat to YouTube remains potential copyright lawsuits from content providers who could claim that the site—like Napster before it—is enabling thieves. In a recent report, Google acknowledged that "adverse results in these lawsuits may include awards of substantial monetary damages." Mark Cuban, the billionaire co-founder of Broadcast.com, has said publicly for months that the potential for legal trouble makes YouTube a bad investment. YouTube has responded by publicizing agreements it has made with media companies such as nbc Universal Television to legally show video clips from, say, The Office. Still, YouTube says federal law requires only that it remove videos when copyright holders complain—not to pre-emptively monitor the site for infringements, which would destroy its spontaneity. If kids can't play sad pop songs in the background of their video blogs, why would they blog at all?

In an e-mail, Cuban pointed out a contradiction in YouTube's position: "They are spending a ton of money to license content. Which makes me curious. Why license if all that content is viable under [federal law]? And when does the licensing ever end—won't everyone want [to get] paid? Even the personal videos of cats?"

Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO, told me his company had hired an outside firm to help it analyze YouTube's legal risks. "And we concluded that Mark Cuban's arguments were false. We read them, by the way. We just think he's false. Copyright law, the safe-harbor provisions—it works, as long as we do a good job of takedown"—quickly removing videos whenever copyright holders ask.

It's hard to imagine Chad and Steve sitting through endless meetings on safe-harbor laws. They're too young, too creative and—in Steve's case, at least—too peripatetic. They usually demur on questions of what they will do next, blandly stating their hopes to "improve the product," as Chad puts it. But Levchin, their former boss at PayPal, says, "The essential crisis is coming. They better get ready. And the essential crisis for an entrepreneur is, What is this all about? Did I just make the most money in my life ever? For what purpose? And... am I going to start setting up my family office and manage my investments, or am I going to jump off another roof and hope there's a parachute?"

Which is a very old question indeed, one all newly wealthy people face when the market rewards them. Chad and Steve don't yet have an answer. They may have built a website that changed the online world in 2006, but they are still learning when to leave the party thanks to the Time website for this 1

THE YEAR 2006 PART 4

everybody knew who Steve Erwin was and on Sept 4 Th 2006 i went to "confess" in our queen's second show in Amsterdam and he died ! i must say i didn't know about it till a week later Stephen Robert Irwin (February 22, 1962 – September 4, 2006), nicknamed "The Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian wildlife expert and television personality. He achieved world-wide fame from the television program The Crocodile Hunter, an internationally-broadcast wildlife documentary series co-hosted with his wife Terri Irwin. Together with her, he also co-owned and operated Australia Zoo in Beerwah, Queensland, founded by his parents.

Early years

Born to Lyn and Bob Irwin in Essendon, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Irwin moved with his parents as a child to Queensland in 1970. Irwin described his father as a wildlife expert interested in herpetology whilst his mother Lyn was a wildlife rehabilitator. After moving to Queensland, Bob and Lyn Irwin started the small Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park, where Steve grew up around crocodiles and other reptiles.

Irwin became involved with the park in a number of ways, including taking part in daily animal feeding, as well as care and maintenance activities. On his sixth birthday he was given a 12-foot scrub python. He began handling crocodiles at the age of nine after his father had educated him on reptiles from an early age.Also at age nine he wrestled his first crocodile, again under his father's supervision. He graduated from Caloundra State High School in 1979. He soon moved to Northern Queensland, where he became a crocodile trapper, removing crocodiles from populated areas where they were considered a danger. He performed the service for free with the quid pro quo that he be allowed to keep them for the park. Irwin followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a volunteer for the Queensland Government's East Coast Crocodile Management program.

Career

The park was a family run business, until it was turned over to Irwin. He took over the running of the park, now called Australia Zoo (renaming it in 1992). Also that year, he appeared in a one-off reptile and wildlife special for television. In 1991, he met Terri Raines at the park, whilst performing a demonstration. The two married in June 1992, in Eugene, Oregon. The footage, shot by John Stainton, of their crocodile-trapping honeymoon became the first episode of The Crocodile Hunter. The series debuted on Australian TV screens in 1996, and by the following year had made its way onto North American television. The Crocodile Hunter became successful in the United States and also, after repackaging by Partridge Films for ITV, in the UK. In 1998 he continued, working with producer and director Mark Strickson, to present The Ten Deadliest Snakes in the World. By 1999, he had become very popular in the United States, making his first appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. By this time, the Crocodile Hunter series was now broadcast in over 137 countries, reaching 500 million people. His exuberant and enthusiastic presenting style, broad Australian accent, constant wearing of khakis, and catchphrase "Crikey!" became known worldwide.

Under Irwin's leadership, the operations grew to include the zoo, the television series, the Steve Irwin Conservation Foundation (renamed Wildlife Warriors), and the International Crocodile Rescue. Improvements to the Australia Zoo include the Animal Planet Crocoseum, the rainforest aviary and Tiger Temple. Irwin mentioned that he was considering opening an Australia Zoo in Las Vegas, Nevada, and possibly at other sites around the world.

Film

Irwin in The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course.

In 2001, Irwin appeared in a cameo role in the Eddie Murphy film Dr. Dolittle 2. Irwin's only starring feature film role was in 2002's The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, which was released to mixed reviews. In the film Irwin (who portrayed himself and performed numerous stunts) mistakes some CIA agents for poachers. He sets out to stop them from capturing a crocodile, which, unknown to him, has actually swallowed a tracking transmitter. The film won the Best Family Feature Film award for a comedy film at the Young Artist Awards. The film was produced on a budget of about $12 million, and has grossed $33 million. To promote the film, Irwin was featured in an animated short produced by Animax Entertainment for Intermix.

In 2002, the Irwins appeared in the Wiggles video/dvd release Wiggly Safari, which was set in Irwin's Australia Zoo. It featured Irwin-themed songs written and performed by the Wiggles such as "Crocodile Hunter", "Australia Zoo", "Snakes (You can look but you better not touch)" and "We're The Crocodile Band". Irwin was featured prominently on the cover and throughout the movie.

In 2003, Irwin was reportedly in line to host a chat show on Australian network television, a series that never went into production.^{[citation needed]}

In 2006, Irwin provided his voice for the animated film Happy Feet, (2006) as an elephant seal named Trev. The film was dedicated to Irwin, as he died during post-production.

Animal Planet

Croc Files

Animal Planet ended The Crocodile Hunter with a series finale entitled "Steve's Last Adventure." The last Crocodile Hunter documentary spanned three hours with footage of Irwin's across-the-world adventure in locations including the Himalayas, the Yangtze River, Borneo, and the Kruger National Park. Irwin went on to star in other Animal Planet documentaries, including The Croc Files, The Crocodile Hunter Diaries, and New Breed Vets.

Later projects

In January 2006 as part of "Australia Week" celebrations in the USA, Irwin appeared at the Pauley Pavilion, UCLA in Los Angeles, California. During an interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Irwin announced that Discovery Kids would be developing a show for his daughter, Bindi Sue Irwin. The show, Jungle Girl, was tipped to be similar to The Wiggles movies, with songs that surround a story. A feature-length episode of Australian kids TV show The Wiggles entitled "Wiggly Safari" appears dedicated to Irwin, and he's featured in it heavily with his wife and daughter. The show includes the song "Crocodile Hunter, Big Steve Irwin".

In 2006, the American network The Travel Channel had begun to show a series of specials starring Irwin and his family as they travelled on cross-country tours.

Media work

A poster from Irwin's Quarantine Matters! campaign.

Irwin was also involved in several media campaigns. He enthusiastically joined with the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service to promote Australia's strict quarantine/customs requirements, with advertisements and posters featuring slogans such as, "Quarantine Matters! Don't muck with it". His payments for these advertising campaigns were directed into his wildlife fund.

In 2004 he was appointed ambassador for The Ghan, the passenger train running from Adelaide to Alice Springs in the central Australian outback, when the line was extended all the way to Darwin on the northern coast that year. For some time he was sponsored by Toyota.

He was also a keen promoter for Australian tourism in general and Queensland tourism in particular. In 2002 the Australia Zoo was voted Queensland's top tourist attraction.His immense popularity in the United States meant he often promoted Australia as a tourist destination there.

Honours

In 2001 Irwin was awarded the Centenary Medal for his "service to global conservation and to Australian tourism". In 2004 he was recognised as Tourism Export of the Year.He was also nominated in 2004 for Australian of the Year, an honour which was won by Steve Waugh. Doubts were cast over his nomination when the "baby Bob" incident, in which Steve dangled his infant son in front of a crocodile, occurred in January of that year. Shortly before his death, he was to be named an adjunct professor at the University of Queensland's School of Integrative Biology

Environmentalism

rwin was a passionate conservationist and believed in promoting environmentalism by sharing his excitement about the natural world rather than preaching to people. He was concerned with conservation of endangered animals and land clearing leading to loss of habitat. He considered conservation to be the most important part of his work: "I consider myself a wildlife warrior. My mission is to save the world's endangered species." Irwin bought "large tracts of land" in Australia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the United States, which he described as "like national parks" and stressed the importance of people realising that they could each make a difference.

He had urged people to take part in considerate tourism and not support illegal poaching through the purchase of items such as turtle shells, or shark-fin soup:

“

These Hitlers use the camouflage of science to make money out of animal deaths … So whenever they murder our animals and call it sustainable use, I'll fight it. Since when has killing a wild animal, eating it or wearing it, ever saved a species? There are people who butt out their cigarettes in gorilla-paw ashtrays, with wastepaper baskets that were once elephant feet, who have ivory ornaments… who wear cheetah fur. Don't buy these things! Then there'll be no market and the animals won't be killed. We have domesticated livestock raised for consumption and perfectly good fake leather and fur, so why must we kill wild animals to satisfy the macabre taste of some rich person?

He founded the Steve Irwin Conservation Foundation, which was later renamed Wildlife Warriors Worldwide, and became an independent charity. He was described after his death by the CEO of RSPCA Queensland as a "modern-day Noah", and British naturalist David Bellamy lauded his skills as a natural historian and media performer. Irwin discovered a new species of turtle that now bears his name, Elseya irwini — Irwin's Turtle — a species of turtle found on the coast of Queensland.

He also helped to found a number of other projects, such as the International Crocodile Rescue, as well as the Lyn Irwin Memorial Fund, in memory of his mother, with proceeds going to the Iron Bark Station Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre.

Irwin, however, was criticised for having an unsophisticated view of conservation in Australia that seemed more linked to tourism than the problems Australia faces as a continent. The Sydney Morning Herald reported in 2002 that Irwin had stated:

“

"Here is my greatest gift to the world," he cries. "We need to stand proud of what is Australia … the greatest grazing nation on the face of the Earth! The whole joint is grazing land … and by crikey we're good at it! We should be … [eating] beef and lamb, not kangaroos and crocodiles. They're why tourists come to Australia. They are tourism icons!"

”

In response to questions of Australia's problems with overgrazing, salinity, erosion, Irwin responded: "Cows have been on our land for so long that Australia has evolved to handle those big animals." The Sydney Morning Herald concluded with the opinion that his message was confusing and amounted to "eating roos and crocs is bad for tourism, and therefore more cruel than eating other animals"

Personal life

Family

In 1992, Irwin married Terri Raines from Eugene, Oregon, United States. The pair had met a few months earlier when Raines had visited the zoo on a holiday. Said Terri at the time, "I thought there was no one like this anywhere in the world. He sounded like an environmental Tarzan, a larger-than-life superhero guy." Together they had two children: a daughter, Bindi Sue Irwin (born July 24, 1998), and a son, Robert Clarence "Bob" Irwin (born December 1, 2003). Bindi Sue is jointly named after two of Steve Irwin's favourite animals: Bindi, a saltwater crocodile, and Sui, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier who died in June 2004.

Irwin was as enthusiastic about his family as he was about his work. He once described his daughter Bindi as "the reason he was put on the Earth." His wife once said, "The only thing that could ever keep him away from the animals he loves are the people he loves even more

Controversy

Some controversy arose during a public show on January 2, 2004, when Irwin carried his one-month-old son, Bob, in his arm whilst hand-feeding a chicken carcass to Murray, a 3.8-metre (12.5-foot) saltwater crocodile. The infant was close to the crocodile, and comparisons were made in the press to Michael Jackson's dangling his son outside a German hotel window (in the attempt to present his son to the crowd of fans). In addition, child welfare groups, animal rights groups, and some of Irwin's television viewers criticised his actions as irresponsible and tantamount to child abuse. Despite public outcry by some in Australia and abroad, Irwin refused to apologise for the incident. Both he and his wife publicly stated that Irwin was in complete control of the situation, as he had dealt with crocodiles since he was a small child, and based on his lifetime of experience neither he nor his son were in any danger. Terri Irwin claimed their child was in no more danger than one being taught to swim. No charges were filed; according to one journalist, Irwin told officials he would not repeat the action.The incident prompted the Queensland government to change its crocodile-handling laws, banning children and untrained adults from entering crocodile enclosures.

In June 2004, allegations were made that he disturbed wildlife (namely whales, seals and penguins) while filming a documentary, Ice Breaker, in Antarctica. The matter was subsequently closed without charges being filed

Animal Planet released a "Crocodile Hunter" special called "Confessions of the Crocodile Hunter" which attempted to explain some of the incidents. This special argues that Irwin's son was never in danger of being harmed by the crocodile, and that Irwin was of no threat to the animals in Antarctica.

Politics

After questions arose about Irwin being paid $175,000 worth of taxpayers' money to appear in a television advertisement and his possible political ties, Irwin told ABC:

“

I love John Howard, and that's the way I am. So everyone thinks I'm, like, this diehard Liberal supporter. I'm not! I'm not. I'm sitting on the fence, mate; I'm a conservationist. I can't afford to be one way or the other. I just have to run straight up the middle, mate. I have to get on with whoever's in power. And to tell you the truth, the best speech that popped up in Parliament House when George Bush was here was Simon Crean. Here's a bloke who actually disagreed with Iraq, OK, so he put forward the most eloquent speech, which really boosted his profile in my eyes. By crikey, I thought, Simon did the best one there, which is fantastic. So I appreciate good work when I see it, and that's all it isHis comments describing John Howard as the "greatest leader in the world" earned him scorn in the media Search and rescue effort in Mexico In November 2003, Irwin was filming a documentary on sea lions off the coast of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula when he heard via his boat's radio that two scuba divers were reported missing in the area. Irwin and his entire crew suspended operations to aid in the search. His team's divers searched with the rescue divers, and Irwin used his vessel to patrol the waters around the island where the incident occurred, as well as using his satellite communications system to call in a rescue plane. On the second day of the search, kayakers found one of the divers, Scott Jones, perched on a narrow rock ledge jutting out from the side of a cliff. Irwin and a crewmember escorted him to Irwin's boat. Jones did not recognise his celebrity rescuer, as he had never seen Irwin on television. The other lost diver, Katie Vrooman, was found dead by a search plane later the same day not far from Jones's location Sports fan Having grown up in Essendon, Irwin was a fan of the Essendon Bombers, an Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League.[32] Irwin took part in an Australian Rules football promotion in Los Angeles as part of "Australia Week" in early 2006. After his death, a picture of Irwin wearing a Bombers Guernsey was shown by ESPN.com in their Bottom 10 ranking of the worst Division I-A college football teams after Week 1 of the season in tribute to him. Living in Queensland most of his life, Irwin was also a fan of rugby league. As a teenager he played for the Caloundra Sharks as a second-rower, and as an adult he was known to be a passionate Brisbane Broncos fan and was involved with the club on several occasions. On one occasion after turning up to training he asked if he could tackle the largest player, Shane Webcke. Despite being thrown to the ground and looking like he'd been crushed he was jovial about the experience. Irwin laughingly shared the experience with the Queensland State of Origin squad before the 2006 series. Irwin also supported rugby union, being a fan of the national team, the Wallabies. He once wore Wallaby jersey during a demonstration at the zoo. A behind-the-scenes episode of The Crocodile Hunter showed Irwin and the crew finding a gas station in a remote part of Namibia to watch the Wallabies defeat France in the 1999 Rugby World Cup Final. Irwin was also a talented surfer. Other personal trivia Irwin was born on his mother's birthday. Irwin was particularly interested in Singapore Zoo, which he considered a sister institution of the Australia Zoo. Irwin loved mixed martial arts competitions and trained with Greg Jackson in the fighting/grappling system of Gaidojutsu Irwin said on an interview for the Discovery Networks that he would only stop his wildlife conservation efforts when his children took over the operation, just as Irwin had his father's center. In 2004, during an interview with Larry King, he admitted that he had a fear of parrots, having received many painful bites from the animals in the past. In 2005, in an interview for New Idea, he stated that he was afraid of being killed in a car crash. Claims that he had joined a church a short time before his death appear to be urban legend., although Terri Irwin has stated in an interview that Irwin believed in God. According to Terri, Sir David Attenborough was an inspiration to Irwin. When presenting a Lifetime Achievement Award to Attenborough at the British National Television Awards on October 31, 2006 she said "If there's one person who directly inspired my husband it's the person being honoured tonight." she went on to say "(Steve's) real, true love was conservation - and the influence of tonight's recipient in preserving the natural world has been immense." Sir Attenborough reciprocated with praising Irwin for introducing many to the natural world, saying "He taught them how wonderful and exciting it was, he was a born communicator." Death Shortly after 01:00 UTC (11:00 AEST) on September 4, 2006, Irwin was fatally pierced in the chest by a stingray spine whilst snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef, at Batt Reef, which is located off the coast of Port Douglas in Queensland. Irwin was in the area filming his own documentary, to be called The Ocean's Deadliest, but weather had stalled filming. Irwin decided to take the opportunity to film some shallow water shots for a segment in the television program his daughter Bindi was hosting, when, according to his friend and colleague, John Stainton, he swam too close to one of the stingrays. "He came on top of the stingray and the stingray's barb went up and into his chest and put a hole into his heart," said Stainton, who was on board Irwin's boat the Croc One. The events were caught on camera, and a copy of the footage was handed to the Queensland Police. After reviewing the footage of the incident and speaking to the cameraman who recorded it, marine documentary filmmaker and former spearfisherman Ben Cropp speculated that the stingray "felt threatened because Steve was alongside and there was the cameraman ahead". In such a case, the stingray responds to danger by automatically flexing the serrated spine on its tail (which can measure up to 25 cm or about 10 inches in length) in an upward motion. Cropp said Irwin had accidentally boxed in the animal. "It stopped and twisted and threw up its tail with the spike, and it caught him in the chest. It's a defensive thing. It's like being stabbed with a dirty dagger". The stinging of Irwin by the bull ray was "a one-in-a-million thing," Cropp told Time magazine. "I have swum with many rays, and I have only had one do that to me." Initially, when Irwin's colleague, John Stainton, was interviewed by CNN's Larry King late on September 4, 2006 he denied the suggestion that Irwin had pulled the spine out of his chest, or that he had seen footage of the event, insisting that the anecdote was "absolute rubbish."The following day, when he first described the video to the media, he stated, "Steve came over the top of the ray and the tail came up, and spiked him here [in the chest], and he pulled it out and the next minute he's gone". It is thought, in the absence of a coroner's report, that a combination of the toxins and the puncture wound from the spine caused Irwin to die of cardiac arrest, with most damage being inflicted by tears to arteries or other main blood vessels. A similar incident in Florida a month later in which a man survived a stingray barb through the heart showed that Irwin may have caused his own death by removing the barb. The coroner's report has not yet been released. Crew members aboard his boat called the emergency services in the nearest city of Cairns and administered CPR as they rushed the boat to the nearby Low Islets to meet a rescue helicopter. Medical staff pronounced Irwin dead when they arrived a short time later. According to Dr. Ed O'Loughlin, who treated Irwin, "it became clear fairly soon that he had non-survivable injuries. He had a penetrating injury to the left front of his chest. He had lost his pulse and wasn't breathing." Irwin's body was flown to a morgue in Cairns. His wife, Terri Irwin, was on a walking tour in Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park in Tasmania at the time, and returned via a private plane from Devonport to the Sunshine Coast with their two children Fatalities due to stingrays are infrequent but occurrences are not collated. The attack on Irwin is believed to be the only fatality from a stingray ever captured on film Speculations have surfaced which suggest the tape of Steve Irwin's death may be released for broadcast on television However, the opposite has also been stated. Stainton told CNN's Larry King "[The tape] should be destroyed" There have even been reports that the video was stolen and copied before being locked up . In an ABC interview with Barbara Walters, Irwin's wife Terri said she hasn't seen the film of her husband's deadly encounter with the stingray and that it won't ever be shown on television Reaction News of his death prompted widespread shock. Australian Prime Minister John Howard expressed his "shock and distress" at the death, saying that "Australia has lost a wonderful and colourful son." Queensland Premier Peter Beattie commented in a Channel Seven television interview that Irwin "will be remembered as not just a great Queenslander, but a great Australian". Several Australian news websites went down because of high web traffic and for the first time the top 10 list of most viewed stories for Fairfax Digital news sites were swept by one topic. Talk-back radio experienced a high volume of callers expressing their grief. The U.S. feed of the Animal Planet cable television channel aired a special tribute to Steve Irwin that started on Monday, 4 September 2006. The tribute continued with the Animal Planet channel showing highlights of Irwin's more than 200 appearances on Discovery Networks shows. The president of the Discovery Network, Billy Campbell, released a statement, saying: “ Our entire company is deeply saddened by the tragic and sudden loss of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. Steve was beloved by millions of fans and animal lovers around the world and was one of our planet's most passionate conservationists. He has graced our air since October 1996 and was essential in building Animal Planet into a global brand. ” On the evening of his death, Enough Rope re-broadcast an interview between Irwin and Andrew Denton originally broadcast in 2003. CNN showed a repeat of his interview on Larry King Live, originally recorded in 2004. The Australian federal parliament opened on September 5, 2006 with condolence speeches by both the Prime Minister John Howard and the Leader of the Opposition Kim Beazley. The Seven Network aired a television memorial show as a tribute to Irwin on 5 September 2006, as did the Nine Network on September 6, 2006. It is a rumor that before he died, he pulled the barb of the sting ray out of his chest. Jay Leno delivered a tribute to Irwin, describing him as a great ambassador of Australia. Irwin appeared on Leno's talk show on more than ten occasions. There were also tributes on Live with Regis & Kelly and Barbara Walters' The View; on the former show, Kelly Ripa came close to tears with her praise of Irwin. Hundreds of people visited Australia Zoo to pay tribute to the deceased entertainer and conservationist. The day after his death, the volume of people visiting the zoo to pay their respects affected traffic so much that police reduced the speed limit around the Glass House Mountains Road and told motorists to expect delays.[65] BBC reported on September 13, 2006 that thousands of fans have been to Australia Zoo since Irwin's death, bringing flowers, candles, stuffed animals and messages of support. In the weeks after his death, Irwin's conservation foundation Wildlife Warriors reported that thousands of people from around the world were offering their support via donations to the conservation group. Criticism Dan Mathews, vice-president of animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said it was "no shock at all that Steve Irwin should die provoking a dangerous animal". He added that "Irwin made his career out of antagonising frightened wild animals, that's a very dangerous message to send to children." He also made a comparison with another well known conservationist: "If you compare him with a responsible conservationist like Jacques Cousteau, he looks like a cheap reality TV star."The son of Jacques Cousteau, Jean-Michel Cousteau, also a producer of wildlife documentaries, also took issue with Irwin's hands-on approach to nature television. Cousteau asserted "You don't touch nature, you just look at it." Although it "goes very well on television", Irwin's approach would "interfere with nature, jump on animals, grab them, hold them, and have this very, very spectacular, dramatic way of presenting things" which Cousteau felt is "very misleading". Jacques Cousteau's grandson Phillipe Cousteau, however, was himself working with Irwin on the "Ocean's Deadliest" documentary at the time of Irwin's death, and later described him as "a remarkable individual". Describing their project, he said "I think why Steve was so excited about it that we were looking at these animals that people think of as, you know, dangerous and deadly monsters, and they're not. They all have an important place in the environment and in the world. And that was what his whole message was about." Backlash against stingrays In the weeks following Irwin's death, at least ten stingrays were found dead and mutilated, with their tails cut off, on the beaches of Queensland, prompting speculation that they had been killed by fans of Irwin as an act of revenge. Michael Hornby, the executive director of Irwin's conservation group Wildlife Warriors, responded by saying that killing stingrays is "the last thing Steve would want." Funeral and memorials Queensland Premier Peter Beattie extended the offer of a state funeral to Irwin's family, an honour also agreed to by Prime Minister John Howard. The family decided that such a funeral wouldn't be appropriate. Steve Irwin's father, Bob Irwin, stated that his son would not have wanted such an honour, and would want to be remembered as an "ordinary bloke".Beattie stated he would honour the decision of the Irwin family regarding their arrangements. Irwin was farewelled by family and friends at a private funeral service held at Caloundra on the afternoon of 9 September.The naturalist was buried in a private ceremony at the zoo on the same day. Memorial service A public service was held at the 5,500-seat Animal Planet Crocoseum at Australia Zoo on Wednesday morning September 20, 2006. The service was broadcast live, commercial free, in the eastern states of Australia, by free-to-air channels Seven, Nine and the ABC in Australia, as well as live on subscription channel Sky News Australia. In addition, it was broadcast live around the world, particularly the United States, where the service was broadcast commercial free on Animal Planet, as well as to Asia and Germany. A BBC camera crew was also sent especially to Australia to cover the memorial service for the United Kingdom. It is estimated that over 300 million viewers worldwide watched the service.. The memorial was also rebroadcast on Animal Planet on January 1st, 2007 as part of thier New Year's Day celebration, and again the following day. The memorial service was held in the "Crocoseum" at Australia Zoo Messages from around the world came from people including Hugh Jackman, Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Kevin Costner, Russell Crowe and Larry King. Costner called him a "fearless" man who was brave enough to let people see him as he was. Crowe said in his recorded tribute: “ We have lost a friend, a champion. It will take some time to adjust to that. ” The Prime Minister John Howard made an early speech at the service, as did Irwin's father Bob and his daughter Bindi, who said: “ My Daddy was my hero – he was always there for me when I needed him. He listened to me and taught me so many things, but most of all he was fun. I know that Daddy had an important job. He was working to change the world so everyone would love wildlife like he did. He built a hospital to help animals and he bought lots of land to give animals a safe place to live. He took me and my brother and my Mum with him all the time. We filmed together, caught crocodiles together and loved being in the bush together. I don't want Daddy's passion to ever end. I want to help endangered wildlife just like he did. I have the best daddy in the whole world and I will miss him every day. When I see a crocodile I will always think of him and I know that Daddy made this zoo so everyone could come and learn to love all the animals. Daddy made this place his whole life and now it’s our turn to help Daddy. ” Wes Mannion and John Stainton also made speeches and David Wenham read a poem.[76] Anthony Field from The Wiggles partly hosted the service, oftentimes sharing the screen with various animals, from koalas to elephants, and Australian music star John Williamson sang True Blue, which was Irwin's favourite song. Professor Craig Franklin of the University of Queensland told the crowd that the university was about to make Irwin an adjunct professor for his contributions to the study of crocodiles In a symbolic finish to the service, Irwin's truck was loaded up with gear and driven out of the arena for the last time as Williamson sang. In a final tribute, Australia Zoo staff spelled out Irwin's catchphrase "Crikey" in yellow flowers as Irwin's truck was driven from the "Crocoseum" for the last time to end the service. Flags on the Sydney Harbour Bridge flew at half mast on the day of the memorial service. Other Australian memorials Several permanent memorials for Irwin have already been considered or announced. Premier Peter Beattie suggested a national park be named after Irwin or a permanent memorial might be constructed in his honour, though the details of the structure would depend on Irwin's family On January 1, 2007, Glasshouse Mountains Road, the road that runs by Steve and Terri Irwin's Australia Zoo, was officially renamed to "Steve Irwin Way". American memorials Animal Planet will rename the garden in front of Discovery's world headquarters in Silver Spring, Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, to the "Steve Irwin Memorial Garden". Animal Planet is also creating the Steve Irwin Crocodile Hunter Fund called the "The Crikey Fund" to "provide a way for people from across the globe to make contributions in Irwin's honor to support wildlife protection, education and conservation" Animal Planet also recently ran The Crocodile Hunter Diaries marathon on air to pay tribute to Irwin. Controversial memorials During the 2006 Halloween season, a number of Americans, including television personality Bill Maher, wore Steve Irwin costumes (typically consisting of khaki shorts and a matching short-sleeved shirt with a fake bloody stingray or stingray barb protruding from the chest) attached. The television show South Park also depicted Irwin attending a Halloween party hosted by Satan for the residents of Hell ("Hell on Earth 2006"). He is reprimanded for his outfit by Satan, who (thinking that he is an ordinary partygoer dressed as Steve Irwin) admonishes him that the costume is in bad taste, and that it is too soon to be making fun of Irwin's death. When Satan realizes that the man is actually Irwin himself, he kicks him out of the party for not having a costume. Though the program is clearly labeled as being for mature audiences only, Terri Irwin expressed concerns about what effect the episode would have on her two young children if they were to see it, and said that she was "devastated" that her husband was being mocked in such a manner: "Steve had as big a sense of humour as anyone, but this goes too far too soon." John Beyer of UK TV watchdog Mediawatch said: "This is such bad taste and the makers of South Park should review their decision to show it. Steve's family are still grieving..." Comedy Central's Tony Fox responded by defending South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, saying, "The South Park guys do inappropriate things all the time... Their goal is to make people laugh, not to offend people." Additionally, another network spokesperson added that South Park "...has offended people in the past and probably will again. Regular watchers would not be shocked." In response to the complaints about the episode, Parker and Stone included two more Irwin references in the season ten finale, "Stanley's Cup", in which a character tells Stan that the peewee hockey team he coaches has as much chance to win in their next match "as Steve Irwin in a tank full of stingrays." thanks to wikipedia and other sites for the info this post