Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2021 December 22

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December 22

What does "discontinuation of the first brand extension" mean?

Sentence from Money in the Bank (2012): It was the first Money in the Bank event held following the discontinuation of the first brand extension in August 2011.

What does "discontinuation of the first brand extension" mean? Rizosome (talk) 02:32, 22 December 2021 (UTC)

In WWE, "brand extension" refers to a period where Raw and SmackDown are treated as more or less separate promotions with their own sets of champions. "Discontinuation" means that the championships were merged and the two shows were again fully treated as parts of the same promotion. There have been a few periods where this "split" occurred, alternating with periods where the shows were run as a single promotion. The event in question was the Money in the Bank match that was held after the first such split and subsequent merger. --Khajidha (talk) 04:42, 22 December 2021 (UTC)

I got the answer from this line: The event in question was the Money in the Bank match that was held after the first such split and subsequent merger. Rizosome (talk) 00:15, 23 December 2021 (UTC)

Resolved

Phil Hartman

I was watching the original Back to the Future movie this evening and noticed that the announcer of Goldie Wilson's re-election campaign van was Phil Hartman. It's about nine minutes into the movie, right after Marty's band gets rejected. At least, I'm pretty damn sure it's him. I'm normally not great with voices, but I'm a big fan of his and I'm fairly certain. Searching online has not turned up anything definitive, though. The IMDb entries say nothing. The cast page for BTTF says it's "verified as complete", but does not provide a name for that voice (the 1985 radio announcer listed is for the Toyota commercial at the very start of the movie). This at least let me know I was not alone. And this tells me that Hartman was on good terms with BTTF director Robert Zemeckis. Can anyone confirm - or provide a source that definitely states it's not him? Matt Deres (talk) 03:06, 22 December 2021 (UTC)

I only found this biography which says that Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis attempted unsuccessfully to promote a film script that Hartman had written, so there is a link. Alansplodge (talk) 12:15, 22 December 2021 (UTC)

A bit more digging finds: Some people believe that the voice on the loudspeaker of the "Re-Elect Goldie Wilson" Van is that of the late Phil Hartman. [1] Alansplodge (talk) 12:20, 22 December 2021 (UTC)

I do appreciate the effort, but both of those were linked in my OP. One is only circumstantial and the other is not a WP:RS. Matt Deres (talk) 14:50, 22 December 2021 (UTC)

Apologies - the perils of reading a question and then going back to it later. Alansplodge (talk) 22:29, 22 December 2021 (UTC)

Since Zemeckis is still among the living, maybe you could write to him and ask. --←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:16, 22 December 2021 (UTC)

One more non-RS independently making the same observation: [2] And this is a non-RS, a chat from 2003 with Bob Gale, co-writer with Zemeckis on BttF, in which a participant asks the question, adding that Hartman at the time did a lot of voice-over work. Gale's answer is very inconclusive – he has no idea. This participant too has not been able to find confirmation anywhere of his conjecture.  --Lambiam 18:24, 22 December 2021 (UTC)

Bob has no idea, though he does feel it's unlikely. But at least it's something - thank you for both the links. Matt Deres (talk) 18:32, 22 December 2021 (UTC)