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The 9 Best-Rated 'How I Met Your Mother' Episodes

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himym ted and the mother

We were recently introduced to the site GraphTV.

The site indexes the IMDB ratings of virtually every television show. 

With the series finale of “How I Met Your Mother” Monday night, we thought it would be cool to take a look back at fan’s highest-rated episodes.  

For the nine seasons of the show, here are the nine fans loved the most. 

9. Season 1, Episode 15: "Game Night"

Rating: 8.9
Votes: 1,401

Synopsis: Marshall hosts a game night which leads to Barney revealing how he ended up in his current job.



8. Season 9, Episode 22: "The End of the Aisle"

Rating: 9.0
Votes: 956

Synopsis: "With only a half-hour to go, both Barney and Robin have panic attacks about their upcoming nuptials. Meanwhile, Marshall and Lily rewrite their old wedding vows."

 



7. Season 4, Episode 9: "The Naked Man"

Rating: 9.0
Votes: 1,620 

Synopsis: After a man claims he gets girls to sleep with him by surprising them in the nude on a first date, Lily, Barney, and Ted all attempt trying the same move to see if it really works.



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Why 'Divergent' Will Never Be As Big As 'The Hunger Games'

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tris prior shailene woodley divergent

"Divergent" opened to a strong $56 million this weekend at theaters.

While it's the first young adult (YA) adaptation to the big screen to not totally bomb since "The Hunger Games," the movie will never gain the same status as Jennifer Lawrence's girl on fire.

Sure, the film will be a healthy franchise for Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment over the next few years, but don't count on it being the cash cow that previous YA series have been for the studios.

There are a few simple reasons "Divergent" will stay in the shadows of "The Hunger Games."

The Star Powershaielene woodley divergent hunger games

Simply put, Shailene Woodley is no Jennifer Lawrence.

When Jennifer Lawrence signed on to "The Hunger Games" franchise she recently came off a role in "X-Men: First Class" and was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for 2010's "Winter's Bone."

Since the film's 2012 release she won an Oscar for her performance in "Silver Linings Playbook."

Shailene Woodley is known among teens for her role on ABC Family's "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" and her role in "The Descendants" alongside George Clooney.

Overall, "The Hunger Games" has a more recognizable cast than "Divergent."

"The Hunger Games"
Jennifer Lawrence
Stanley Tucci
Elizabeth Banks
Liam Hemsworth
Woody Harrelson
Donald Sutherland

"Divergent"
Shailene Woodley
Kate Winslet
Ashley Judd
Maggie Q 

"The Hunger Games" was a huge anomaly.

katniss the hunger games catching fire

When the "Divergent" movie was first announced everyone — us included— automatically referred to the series as the next "Hunger Games." 

It was easy. Both series are about a dystopian future led by strong female leads. Any YA movie adaptation that follows Suzanne Collin's series obviously has some huge shoes to fill; however, it's unlikely we'll ever have another "Hunger Games" anytime soon.

"The Hunger Games" had a larger debut than the first "Harry Potter" film— and that's when inflation is accounted for as well.

Compared to other young adult movies, "The Hunger Games" has the seventh-largest opening weekend at theaters behind four superhero films ("The Avengers," "Iron Man 3," "The Dark Knight Rises," and "The Dark Knight") and the final "Harry Potter" film. 

3 films vs. 4 or 5four tris divergent

Unlike both "Twilight" and "The Hunger Games," "Divergent" is expected to be a three-film series. Lionsgate greenlit a sequel for next March, "Insurgent," and have another film planned for the series' third book set for 2016.

The two former franchises split their final novels across two movies giving "The Hunger Games" four movies and "Twilight" five.

In total, the "Twilight" franchise has generated more than $3.3 billion worldwide. So far, the two "Hunger Games" films have taken in about $1.6 billion at theaters.

If the studios really want to milk the "Divergent" franchise, they'll pull a "Hobbit" and break the final book into two movies to keep it around longer.

The "Divergent" series may have shot itself in the foot. 

divergent fighting theo four

People like happy endings and the "Divergent" series doesn't have one.

HUGE *spoiler* The lead character gets killed off as a martyr in the final novel.

How do you think people would have responded if Harry Potter was killed by Voldemort in the final book (and on screen) or if Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen bit the bullet? My guess is not positively. *spoiler*

The final book in the series,  "Allegiant," received a lot of fan backlash after its release in October 2013. 

So many fans responded negatively that author Veronica Roth took to her blog to address the controversial ending.

"I’ve said before that this ending was always a part of the plan, but one thing I want to make clear is that I didn’t choose it to shock anyone, or to upset anyone," wrote Roth.

Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer previously told analysts he didn't think the book's outcome would hurt the series' chances at the box office. “A little controversy in terms of publicity never hurts," said Feltheimer.

While "Divergent" and "Insurgent" may do well, the final third film could be a test for Lionsgate with fans.

SEE ALSO: How much better "Divergent" performed compared to other young adult adaptations opening weekend

AND: Everything you need to know about "Divergent"

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Fans Are Not Happy With The 'How I Met Your Mother' Series Finale

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Warning: Major spoilers if you have not watched the finale.

The series finale to “How I Met Your Mother” aired tonight and a lot of fans were left unhappy. 

After nine years, while we finally found out how Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) met “the mother” Tracy, we also learned the real reason Ted was telling his kids this long-winded story that barely involved the mother. 

himym josh radnor cristin miliotiAs many previously predicted, the mother passed away years ago, and Ted was trying to ask his kids permission to move on six years later with their long-divorced Aunt Robin. 

In a way, it shouldn’t come as a surprise since Ted’s attraction to Robin was always the focal point of the show. The pilot episode even ended with Ted telling his kids, "[That] ... is the true story of how i met your Aunt Robin."

While Ted’s kids were able to accept this, the twist didn’t sit well with a lot of fans.

Watch the ending below via Slate

SEE ALSO: The best-rated episodes of HIMYM

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Hulu Is Airing Prank Trailers For Fake Spinoffs Of Your Favorite Shows

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Google pranks aside, one of our favorite things to do on April Fools’ Day is see what gags the streaming services come up with. Last year, Netflix arranged its content into funny, entertaining categories.

This year, we're more impressed with Hulu.

The site launched a bunch of fake spinoff series to popular shows. 

The two with trailers don’t sound half bad.

"In the Kitchen with Hannibal"

We love "Hannibal" — it's probably one of the best underrated shows on TV right now — so when we saw an ad for a Hannibal cooking show we were actually kind of excited. 

hannibal hulu

Synopsis: "Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) shares his most treasured recipes on this new kind of cooking show. Feast your eyes on his parmesan-crumbled lamb brains, peppercorn mutton, and more."

"That's My Fitz"

This should get a chuckle from fans of ABC's hit "Scandal."

ThatsMyFitz

Synopsis: "Who says family and politics aren’t a perfect fitz? The most powerful couple on Scandal opens the White House doors for a hilarious look at what goes on outside the Oval Office. The only scandal would be not watching!"

"The Field"

The funny thing is that Terry Crews would probably be able to hold his own spinoff to "Brooklyn Nine-Nine."the field april fools

Synopsis: "Sergeant Terry Jeffords (Terry Crews, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”) has lost control. With a psych evaluation looming on the horizon, can he prove his anger issues won’t impact his judgment in the field?"

"Hola Señor Chang"

In the first season of "Community," Ken Jeong's character Señor Chang was introduced to us as a Spanish teacher. 

Hola Senor Chang hulu april fools

Synopsis: "Hola, Children! Join Community’s Spanish teacher, Ben Chang, and his puppet friends from Greendale as they teach us the ABC’s and 123’s." 

"AbSolution"

Not even actor Stephen Amell looks excited for this show.

AbSolution hulu april fools

Synopsis: "The superhero workout for body and soul featuring workouts inspired by “Arrow’s” Oliver Queen."

AND: Fans are not happy with the "How I Met Your Mother" series finale

SEE ALSO: Netflix's April Fool's Day prank

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YouTube Has Spent A Year Preparing Its Upcoming Assault On Cable TV

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robber bank surrender

YouTube has spent the past year preparing for an assault on traditional television, and now it is ready to pounce.

Heading into the spring upfront season, when media buyers commit to spending money on various TV networks, YouTube has begun openly petitioning marketing executives to ditch TV and spend their money online.

According to The Wall Street Journal, YouTube sees cable networks as being particularly vulnerable for two reasons: the networks do not have as many viewers as broadcast channels, and they have avoided putting content online so as not to damage their relationships with the cable providers that pay them a monthly licensing fee.

In order to target these cable networks, YouTube is telling media buyers that, for instance, they can reach more 18 to 34 year olds on YouTube than they can on E! or Comedy Central. Those comparisons are made more accurate — and more cutting — by a decision YouTube made in November to allow television measurement giant Nielsen to determine the number and demographic composition of people who see YouTube's ads.

To be sure, YouTube will be looking to siphon off a portion of television budgets rather than steal them outright. Though YouTube's ad revenues grew to $5.6 billion in 2013, eMarketer reports the platform's take was a mere fraction of the more than $60 billion advertisers spent on television in the U.S. alone.

The online video platform will attempt to further increase its share this season by reserving its highest quality ad inventory for those who commit to spending money with it ahead of time. WSJ reports that YouTube will hold back the best-performing 5% of videos in categories like Comedy, Food, and Sports for advertisers who buy in advance.

This assures brands that their money will be spent on video whose quality is at least comparable to what's available on television and creates a sense of urgency for ad buyers who might otherwise wait and see what other video options turn up on the web.

Finally, YouTube will reward marketers who make upfront buys by giving them audience guarantees, thought to be one of the primary advantages of advertising on television rather than the web.

An audience guarantee is a make-good that promises an advertiser its ads will reach a certain number of people in a target demographic. If fewer people in the demographic watch a show than the network predicted when it sold advertising time on it, the network then reimburses the advertiser with time on other shows until it has hit the target number.

Whereas YouTube has in the past refused to conform to TV norms like the audience guarantee and Nielsen's demographic ratings, it now seems confident enough in its offerings to offer brands a direct comparison to their options on cable. 

How buyers spend their money this spring should give us a good idea of whether they, too, think YouTube is strong enough to beat cable at its own game.

SEE ALSO: Here's What You Should Know About The Disney/Dish Network Deal That Will Change The Future Of TV

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Anderson Cooper Won't Inherit A Dime From Mom Gloria Vanderbilt's $200 Million Fortune

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Anderson Cooper Gloria VanderbiltAnderson Cooper may be the great-great-great-grandson of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, but the CNN anchor won't be seeing any of his family's fortune in the future.

"My mom's made clear to me that there's no trust fund. There's none of that," Cooper told Howard Stern Monday on his radio show.

Cooper's mother is railroad heiress-turned-successful jeans designer Gloria Vanderbilt, who, at 90 years old, is worth a reported $200 million.

But Cooper is okay with not receiving an inheritance, telling Stern, "I don't believe in inheriting money. I think it's an initiative sucker. I think it's a curse." 

The 46-year-old TV personality continues, "Who has inherited a lot of money that has gone on to do things in their own life? From the time I was growing up, if I felt that there was some pot of gold waiting for me, I don't know that I would've been so motivated."

Not that Cooper needs the cash. "I'm doing fine on my own, I don't need any," he says.

Cooper makes a reported $11 million per year with his CNN contract, lives in a multimillion-dollar Manhattan apartment, and also has two Hamptons homes.

Despite his success and privileged upbringing, Cooper says growing up he always had a job and was oblivious to his family's wealth — perhaps because only his mother came from money, but his father, Wyatt Emory Cooper, did not.

"I've never paid attention to it, honestly," explains Cooper. "My dad grew up really poor in Mississippi  I paid attention to that because I thought that's a healthier thing to pay attention to than like some statue of a great great great grandfather who has no connection to my life."

NOW WATCH: Why People Are Unfaithful

 

SEE ALSO: Here's What's At Stake In Gwyneth Paltrow And Chris Martin's Multimillion-Dollar Divorce

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Jimmy Kimmel's 10 Prank Ideas For April Fools' Day

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Jimmy Kimmel

In honor of today being April Fools' Day, ultimate prankster Jimmy Kimmel is offering up some of his own ideas for you to trick your loved ones.

"I like to come up with custom pranks specifically tailored to the individual, expose their fears and weaknesses," Kimmel admitted on last night's show.

Once you've completed one of Kimmel's below suggestions or a prank of your own, people are encouraged to upload video to YouTube and Kimmel will put together the best reactions tomorrow in a compilation video.

Here are 10 foolproof April Fools' pranks:

  1. Fill a sock with baby powder and hit them with it
  2. Cut the butt of out their pants
  3. Shake the bed and pretend like there's an earthquake
  4. Switch out their shampoo for soup
  5. Replace breakfast cereal in the box with golf balls
  6. Paint their toenails while they're sleeping
  7. Send a middle of the night text to their boss saying, "You up, dummy?"
  8. Replace all the cash in their wallet with sliced ham
  9. Sign your grandma up for Tinder
  10. Sign your grandpa up for Grindr

Hear Kimmel's expert advice below:

SEE ALSO: Hulu Is Airing Prank Trailers For Fake Spinoffs Of Your Favorite Shows

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13 Actors Who Were Brought Back To Life With Special Effects In Movies

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Philip Seymour Hoffman Hunger Games Catching Fire

The sudden deaths of Paul Walker and Philip Seymour Hoffman took place while both were in the middle of filming upcoming projects.

As a result, upcoming films "Fast & Furious 7" and "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2" will use special effects to replace and recreate the actors' performances.

They're not the only two stars whose deaths forced Hollywood to use a mix of CGI and special effects to finish a film.

Laurence Olivier was dead for 15 years when he starred in 2004's "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow."

To find the perfect villain for 2004's "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" director Kerry Conran chose to use one of the most famous actors of all time, Laurence Olivier.

There was only one problem: Olivier had been dead for 15 years.

The film's star, Jude Law, told USA Today, filmmakers chose to go with Olivier because few actors — alive or dead — carried the fearsome weight of the famed British actor.

To pull this off, the production recorded new dialogue by another actor and used archive footage to create the evil hologram, Dr. Totenkopf.



Deleted scenes and a body double in bandages were used to hide Peter Seller's death in 1982's "The Trail of the Pink Panther."

For 1982's "The Trail of the Pink Panther," filmmakers had a tough decision to make.

They could either replace Peter Sellers' most-famous role of Inspector Clouseau or somehow use him for the film even though he died two years earlier. 

Filmmakers chose to use deleted scenes and archived footage from 1976's "The Pink Panther Strikes Again" to fill in where Sellers would have played the famed sleuth. They even had a body double wear bandages over his face

The film was ultimately dedicated to Sellers, stating, "To Peter... the one and only Inspector Clouseau."



Philip Seymour Hoffman will be digitally recreated in order to finish 2015's "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2."

Philip Seymour Hoffman's death earlier this year left "Hunger Games" fans curious about what will happen to Hoffman's scenes in 2015's "Mockingjay - Part 2."

Lionsgate plans to digitally recreate Hoffman's character, Plutarch Heavensbee, which will allow for the film to finish some key scenes.

But as veteran effects supervisor Rob Legato told The Hollywood Reporter, while today's technology makes it a lot easier to use someone's likeness, it will be very hard to replace Hoffman's acting ability.

The film will debut November 20, 2015.



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The Final 'How I Met Your Mother' Scene Was Filmed 8 Years Ago

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tracy himym how i met your motherWarning: There are some spoilers ahead.

A lot of people were pretty upset with the “How I Met Your Mother” finale

One reason that may explain fans' frustrations is because the finale has been set in stone since the story began. 

The final scene with Ted’s teenage kids was filmed eight years ago around the start of season 2. This was primarily done because the creators knew the two actors playing Ted’s kids would age as the show moved forward. (How else did you think Ted’s two teens look ageless throughout the nine-season series?)

After the finale aired, “How I Met Your Mother” actress Cobie Smulders appeared on the “Late Show with David Letterman” to discuss the series’ sendoff and admitted creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays knew the end since the first episode. 

“Carter and Craig are so smart they actually had planned the ending during our pilot,” said Smulders. “They shot some scenes with the two children.” 

Of course, this may not be news to die-hard fans of the series. Thomas elaborated more on the pre-recorded ending back in 2008 to Zap2It.

“We've had a plan since the pilot and we actually shot a little piece of it at the beginning of season two, using the kids, because we knew if we waited until the finale of the series, the kids would have aged like six years. So yeah, part of our plan for how we want to end it all has already been done.”  

He later told The Chicago Tribune the two actors who play the kids, Lyndsy Fonseca and David Henrie (who's now a cameraman), and executive producer and director Pamela Fryman were among the few who knew the ending to “HIMYM” and kept that secret for nearly a decade. 

That’s pretty impressive. 

However, the significance of the ending being taped years ago is that no matter what twists and turns the show would take, no matter what character growth and development we would see (especially with Barney), there was always the idea that Ted would somehow end up with Robin. 

Thinking it over, that's fine because the show focused more on Robin than the mother (the series probably would have been more aptly called “How I Met Your Stepmother”), and in the end, it all came full circle.  

If you’ve been watching since the beginning, we see Robin with her five dogs approached by Ted who comes to her apartment with a stolen blue French horn. 

At the series' end, in a nearly identical scene, Ted once again heads to Robin’s apartment with the horn (that he kept for all those years) and offers it to Robin as she hangs her head familiarly out her window.

Despite that, knowing the above final scene was filmed years earlier made Monday's sendoff feel a bit contrived. 

If the show was ever in danger of getting canceled, the writers would have little problem tying up the current storyline and reworking it so that it fit with the ending they already had in place.  

Yes, it was nice to see the series come full circle, but after spending an entire season focused on a wedding between Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) and Robin (Cobie Smulders), it felt a bit cheap to see the two get a quickie divorce to clear the road for an eventual Robin and Ted pairing.

What did you think of the finale? Do you feel differently knowing a segment of the finale was filmed years ago? 

SEE ALSO: The highest-rated episodes of "How I Met Your Mother"

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This Stephen King Novel Will Never Be Printed Again After It Was Tied To School Shootings

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Rage, Stephen King

One of the most sought-after out-of-print books is a violent early novel by Stephen King that he removed from print because he feared it inspired kids to shoot up their schools.

Although King wrote the novel "Rage" when he was still in high school in 1965, he didn’t publish it until a decade later after his other works found success. It first appeared as a paperback under King’s pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1977 and then was published in 1985 in a collection of short novels, titled The Bachman Books.

A few years ago, I discovered "Rage" when I bought the collection at a used book store. After realizing it was out of print, I learned the story of why King grew concerned about its circulation.

"Rage" is about a psychologically troubled high school student who brings a gun to school, kills faculty members, and holds his Algebra class hostage. In a 2013 essay published as a Kindle Single, titled "Guns," King acknowledged he wrote the novel in a world very different from the present-day.

“I suppose if it had been written today, and some high school English teacher had seen it, he would have rushed the manuscript to the guidance counselor and I would have found myself in therapy posthaste,” King wrote. “But 1965 was a different world, one where you didn’t have to take off your shoes before boarding a plane and there were no metal detectors at the entrances to high schools.”

However, the world started changing after King published the book. He asked his publishers to remove "Rage" from publication after the novel was linked to four real-life school shooting incidents:

The collection containing four novels written under King’s Bachman pseudonym was reduced to three novels, with Rage permanently removed.

In BookFinder.com’s list of the 100 most sought-after out-of-print books of 2013, Rage is ranked higher than any other novel, at number two overall. Used copies of the first printing paperback are currently on sale online for anywhere between $700 and upwards of $2,000.

King wrote in his 2013 essay that he didn’t consider "Rage" great literature, given his young age when he wrote it. However, he called it an honest portrayal of the horrors and emotions children — including King— face in high school. “The book told unpleasant truths, and anyone who doesn’t feel a qualm of regret at throwing a blanket over the truth is an a[--]hole with no conscience,” he wrote.

Although King doesn’t believe his novel alone caused those four violent school shooting incidents, he regards "Rage" as a “possible accelerant” affecting people whose troubled backgrounds and psychological problems have already driven them to the brink.

“I pulled it because in my judgment it might be hurting people, and that made it the responsible thing to do,” King wrote. 


Some reviewers of Rage on Amazon have shared their own opinions of King’s decision.

“Stephen, I have read that you regretted writing this novel,” one customer wrote in an Amazon review shortly after King removed "Rage" from print. “Please don't. The actions of others are not in your control. I once was bitten by a rabid St. Bernard, but I don't blame you for writing 'Cujo.'”

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It's Becoming Clear That CNN Boss Jeff Zucker Is, In Fact, Exactly What The Network Needed

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Jeff Zucker

Here at Business Insider, we have TVs hanging all over the newsroom, and for the last few days, the one across from me has been showing CNN.

As a result, I can tell you that CNN is, in fact, covering the missing-Malaysian-Airlines-plane story pretty much non-stop.

Oh, they break occasionally to other news. Yesterday, for a few minutes, after threatening to lose viewers by covering a boring 5.1 earthquake in Los Angeles, they were showing a big diagram of a possible "Killer Quake" to come. But after that, it was right back to the plane.

The network uses the "DEVELOPING STORY" graphic a lot, often while reporting facts that were first reported a few days ago. But every few minutes, the CNN host-0f-the-hour interviews another expert about those facts, so the story is indeed "developing."

Given that the Malaysia plane disappeared three weeks ago, it always startles me to see that CNN is still covering nothing but the plane story, especially with so little new information to report.

But this, I am coming to understand, is why Jeff Zucker, CNN's new boss, is so renowned for his programming acumen — and why he was such a great hire for the network.

CNN's ratings have gone to the moon since Zucker decreed that the network cover nothing but "The Mystery Of Flight 370."

CNN has apparently surmised — almost certainly correctly — that the plane story is much more interesting, mysterious, and terrifying to viewers than just about any other dime-a-dozen story CNN could be covering.

Given the ratings boost CNN is enjoying, the wall-to-wall plane coverage now seems like a no-brainer. But to dismiss it as such is to ignore the catcalls and scoffing Mr. Zucker and his network have been subjected to by the Twitter-based media elite in the weeks since the network became The Plane Channel.

The media snobs on Twitter hate CNN's plane coverage. They hate it as much as they hated "The DaVinci Code," "The Firm," "Iron Man," and other massively popular commercial successes that normal people love. They love to tweet about how appalled they are, and how embarrassing CNN's plane obsession is.

But their snootiness only goes to show, again, that Mr. Zucker is exactly what CNN needed:

A boss who knows what normal CNN viewers want — and the boldness to withstand the critics and give it to them.

SEE ALSO: This Is Still The Most Plausible Theory About What Happened To The Malaysia Plane

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The Most Successful Viral Video Campaign Of All Time Now Includes This Dancing Baby Spider-Man

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Evian has released the latest sequel in its popular "baby&me" campaign. You may not care about the water brand's dancing babies, but this is one of the single-biggest online ad campaigns ever.

The original "roller babies" has had more than 75 million views across all platforms. In 2011, it set a record for being the most-viewed ad of all time. A sequel, in which people see baby versions of themselves in a mirror and have no choice but to start dancing, has been viewed more than 70 million times on YouTube and was 2013's No.1 most-viewed YouTube ad.

Simply put, it is currently the single-most-important viral Web video ad campaign on the planet.

This time, Evian has tapped Spider-Man to shake his groove thing.

In the new video, Spider-Man is seen swinging around the city — as Spider-Man is wont to do — when he is confronted by what appears to be a baby Spider-Man across the street.Spiderman meets baby

Spider-Man then jumps down to the street as the '90s banger "Here Comes the Hotstepper" begins playing in the background. He then meets his baby-sized doppelganger in the reflection of a store window, and a Web-based dance-off ensues.Web bridge dance-off

Baby Spider-Man be like:spiderman baby dancing

Here's the full ad:

The video continues Evian's 5-year-old dancing baby campaign, and follows a video released a year ago that showed adults dancing with their baby-sized reflections.

The Spider-Man video was done by the agency BETC Paris and helps promote The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which comes to U.S. theaters May 2.

GIF by Amanda Macias.

SEE ALSO: Evian's Babies, The Most Successful Viral Ad Campaign Of All Time, Roll Again

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Peter Jackson's Personal Jet Is Being Used In The Malaysia Airliner Search

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peter jackson

The personal jet of Oscar-winning movie director Peter Jackson was reported Wednesday to have been called into assist with the search for the missing Malaysian airliner.

Australian authorities coordinating the search for Flight MH370 which disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board said a civilian jet was being used to assist military aircraft scouring the Indian Ocean for any signs of the Boeing 777.

After initially denying it was Jackson's jet, a spokesman for the New Zealand movie director later confirmed it was his aircraft that had been chartered to Australian authorities, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Radio New Zealand said Jackson, who directed the "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" movies, had personally approved the use of his Gulfstream G650 in the search.

The jet was not donated to help in the search effort, rather the company which operated the jet had accepted a charter offer, the report said.

Gulfstream describes the G650 on its website as an "ultra-high-speed, ultra-long-range business jet" and the "flagship of the Gulfstream fleet".

It says it can carry eight passengers and a crew of four on nonstop legs more than 12,900 kilometres (8,000 miles).

SEE ALSO: Here's Why Peter Jackson Can't Make Any More Tolkien Adaptations

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This Is What Happens In 'Silicon Valley,' HBO's Takedown Of The Tech Scene

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SiliconValleyGroup

It’s not easy to create a niche comedy series that balances mainstream appeal with accurate parody, but HBO’s “Silicon Valley” does a decent job of it.

The half-hour comedy, co-created by Mike Judge, pokes fun at stereotypes surrounding the tech elite in Silicon Valley while keeping its main characters relatable.

And it’s not half bad.

When we initially saw the trailer for “Silicon Valley” last month, we were convinced it would be a disaster. The trailer showed little more than a dick joke and a group of cookie-cutter misfit nerds trying to play the underdog card. The truth, however, is that the trailer really didn’t do the show justice and we were pleasantly surprised with the end result.

Judge and co-creator Alec Berg (“Seinfeld”) not only did extensive research into the Bay Area culture, but both have personal ties to the region. Before becoming a successful writer (he wrote "Office Space"), Judge worked as a test engineer in Silicon Valley and Berg’s brother worked for Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft.

“Silicon Valley” is full of quips and jabs that those familiar with the tech industry will find amusing, but it’s also broad enough to lure in average HBO watchers in the mood for a comedy. The show debuts on April 6 right after "Game of Thrones" on HBO. 

We watched the first five episodes of “Silicon Valley,” and here’s what we came away with.

The story follows a Zuckerbergish programmer named Richard who works for Hooli — a giant tech firm that mimics the lavish corporate culture at major companies like Google.



Richard lives in a startup incubator along with three other programmers. He's pictured here alongside his best friend Big Head. They've been friends most of their lives.



Gilfoyle is one of the four programmers living in the incubator with Big Head and Richard. He's a Satanist with a pompous attitude.



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Here's How To Calculate The Amount Of Time You've Wasted Watching TV

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Final TV calculator

If you've ever wondered how much time you've wasted watching your favorite TV shows, a new website can calculate just how long you've spent in front of the tube.

"Tiii.me" allows you to not just figure out how much time you spend binge-watching, say, over a weekend, but rather over your entire life.

It does this by calculating the running-time of your favorite shows, from "House of Cards" to "SportsCenter," and adding the collective time of each via the amount of seasons.

This is how it works:

Input one of your favorite shows on the site. It can be anything from "Jeopardy" to "Community."

TV calculator input

Once you've entered a show, choose how many seasons you've watched. If you gave up on "The Simpsons" after season 10, you can adjust back.TV Calculator The Simpsons

Once the show and season are input, the website calculates the time "wasted." All 26 seasons of "The Simpsons" account for nearly 12 days. TV amount TV calculator

The more shows you add, the larger your number grows.TV calculator Curb

You can add as many shows as you like until you find out just how much time you've spent watching TV (for me, it's 3 full months).Final TV calculator

Once you've figured out just how much time you've actually wasted, you can share with your friends.Twitter TV calculator

You can find out how much time you've wasted watching your favorite TV shows here.

SEE ALSO: Amazon Just Green-Lighted These 6 Shows

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Dirt-Poor Sylvester Stallone Turned Down $300,000 In 1976 To Ensure He Could Play 'Rocky'

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Rocky Sylvester Stallone

The "Rocky" franchise includes six films and has raked in more than a billion dollars at the box office since the first film premiered in 1976. But it almost didn't happen.

Sylvester Stallone was a relative newcomer to Hollywood in the mid-'70s when he pitched his rags-to-riches script about an uneducated debt-collector-turned-champion boxer named Rocky Balboa to producers.

Luckily, producers liked it. Unfortunately for Stallone, they didn't want him to star.

"They wanted every celebrated actor at the time," Stallone recalled Monday on the "Today Show." "And big-name directors, when they found out I wanted to be involved, they scattered, ran for the hills."

Instead of Stallone — the screenwriter — producers wanted Burt Reynolds, James Caan, or Ryan O'Neal, who were all big stars at the time.

So at 30 years old with just $106 in his bank account, Stallone turned down a $300,000 offer  the equivalent of $1 million today — for the rights to "Rocky." He was determined to make the film he wrote on his terms, starring himself.

"It was really insane at the time 'cause I was pretty broke," he said of his decision to hold out. But it ultimately paid off.

Sylvester Stallone Meryl Streep Oscars 1977In 1976, "Rocky" won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Stallone's experience at the ceremony could have been out of the movie.

"Literally, I was parking cars 10 months earlier and now here we are [at the Oscars]," Stallone recalled to "Today." "I rented a tuxedo and on the way to the Oscars the tie broke and the driver goes, 'You want to borrow mine?' I go 'nah, I guess it doesn't matter,' so I walk into the Oscars looking like Vinny Boom Bots, 'how you doin?' and people were like, 'oh my god, what arrogance, how dare he?'"

On a slim $1,075,000 production budget, "Rocky" went on to earn more than $117 million in the U.S. alone. The six-part "Rocky" franchise has since brought in more than a billion dollars worldwide.

Now 67, Stallone once again had to convince producers that "Rocky" could be a hit — this time in the form of a Broadway musical. Eventually, it worked, and the action star got investors to put up a $16.5 million capital investment.

Earlier this month, "Rocky: The Musical" opened on Broadway to knockout reviews.

SEE ALSO: How Steven Spielberg Made Millions Off 'Star Wars' After A 1977 Bet With George Lucas

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3 Reasons Hollywood Is Investing Heavily In YouTube Content Producers

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friends at movies movie theater

Multi-channel networks (MCNs) are a hot commodity in Hollywood right now.

If you're unfamiliar with the term MCN, essentially they're companies that work with multiple YouTube channels that assist creators in producing and funding content, management, along with audience development. 

Last year, DreamWorks Animation paid $33 million for YouTube channel AwesomenessTVIn March, Warner Bros. invested $18 million in YouTube videogame channel Machinima

Most recently, Disney purchased Maker Studios for $500 million.

At this point, it's only a matter of time until another big studio announces its investing in another MCN.

We spoke with George Strompolos, the CEO of another multi-channel network Fullscreento find out why studios are so interested in scooping up these companies.

Founded in 2011, Fullscreen has aligned itself with popular YouTube stars and channels including DevinSuperTramp, Cyanide + Happiness, and Lindsey Stirling.

Previously, Strompolos was at YouTube, where he helped create the YouTube partnership program which allows creators to make money off their original content.

Strompolos laid out a few reasons studios may be inclined to invest in a multi-channel network like Maker.

1. Ability to reach a younger demo that TV can't.

"They tend to speak to a demographic that is increasingly spending less time on cable television and traditional media outlets. They're spending their time online and when it comes to video, they're watching YouTube and they're building strong connections with the stars on YouTube. Companies like Fullscreen, Maker, and others in the space are incubating and developing content with those next-generation stars. These stars are a source of content and they're a source of ideas and talent. They have real star power."

2. Real-time data visuals of audience reception.

"We get a lot of data around the creators that we work with. We see which of their videos are working, when they're working. We see how they're being amplified across the web. That kind of data is really valuable when making larger bets and bigger programming decisions."

3. It's a big revenue opportunity.

"You think about what's grown in the last 5 to 10 years, and basically you have video being widely available online and on mobile as well. Now, watching video online is just a normal thing," says Strompolos. "Pretty much every young person today has a smartphone and the cameras on those phones are as powerful as some television cameras were about only two decades ago."

Strompolos says the growth of online video in the past 5-10 years combined with a younger generation having easy access to smartphones with cameras is worth paying attention. 

"The combination of widespread video and widespread inexpensive production tools really help the youth become professional creators, and it's not just in Hollywood. It's happening all over the world," Strompolos tells Business Insider. "When media changes so much like that you have a new class of companies, you have a new class of stars. If you program properly you connect with a really valuable audience. That's what we're doing at Fullscreen. That's what some of our peers in the MCN space are doing. A lot of people from the outside looking in are saying, "Oh, short videos." Yeah, there's a lot of short-form videos, but it's really a massive generational shift — almost like what we saw with MTV in the early cable days. It was a movement. That's happening now as well."

"I can't speak for Maker, but Fullscreen is a strong business," adds Strompolos. "Disney recognizes that and they want to get ahead of it and there's certainly going to be a revenue opportunity there for them."

SEE ALSO: This Website Calculates How Much Of Your Lifetime You've Wasted Watching TV

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Donald Rumsfeld Confronted About False Iraq And 9/11 Connection In New Documentary

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"The Unknown Known," a new documentary by Errol Morris slated to be released on April 4, covers the life and career of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with a focus on the runup to the Iraq War.

In this clip, first published on The Daily Beast, Rumsfeld is grilled by Morris on why the Bush administration attempted to lead Americans to believe that there was a link between Saddam Hussein and the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

“It was very clear that the direct planning for 9/11 was done by Osama bin Laden’s people, al Qaeda, and in Afghanistan," replied Rumsfeld. "I don’t think the American people were confused about that.”

Morris then notes that in a 2003 Washington Post poll, 69% of Americans responded that they believed that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the attacks.

Rumsfeld responds by saying that no one in the administration thought or said that.

But that claim appears rather disingenuous. Although the Bush Administration never directly blamed Hussein for the attacks, the general rhetoric from the administration painted a strong connection between Iraq and al Qaeda.

On Sept. 25, 2002, for example, Bush stated that, "you can't distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the War on Terror."

This statement was quickly followed by remarks from Rumsfeld on Sept. 27, stating that links between Iraq and al Qaeda were "not debatable."

SEE ALSO: How The American People Were Sold The Iraq War

SEE ALSO: The Pentagon Is Killing A Combat-Proven Aircraft That Most Troops Totally Love

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The Backyard Punk Scene Is Alive And Well In East LA [PHOTOS]

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Boatwright_BW214264_D3_R 010Drive down the back streets of East Los Angeles on a Friday night, and you may hear 300 or 400 teenagers shouting, thrashing, and partying to the beat of a fast-kicking bass drum. This is the East Los Angeles backyard punk scene, as raw and do-it-yourself as it was when it first sprouted in the '70s.

Photographer and documentarian Angela Boatwright— who's fascinated with rock and music culture and once spent 4 years following a small-time heavy metal band on and off — recently partnered with Vans to document this vibrant scene for its "Off The Wall" series. Boatwright spent months following teenagers who support a scene that doesn't have the backing of traditional music venues.

She shared some of the photos with us here, and you can check out the rest of her work her website. The entire documentary series on East Los Angeles is available at Vans.

Concerts are held in various places, including apartment complex parking lots, backyards of residential houses, and on abandoned properties.Boatwright_215469_O 041Many families, who have no affiliations with punk, host concerts in their backyards because they can make money from hosting and enjoy supporting the neighborhood kids. Hosts will typically collect $2-$3 for admission per person. Boatwright_EastLA_PUNKS_5 6 13_B 048Shows can attract hundreds of kids from all over Southern California. While most are from East L.A., some come from as far as Orange County or San Diego.Boatwright_215469_S 020Most of the kids in the scene are somewhere between 14 and their early 20s.Boatwright_EastLA_PUNKS_5 6 13_J 011

The scene is primarily made up of Latino teenagers, but Boatwright says that kids of all races are represented. Boatwright_215272_CC_004The scene gives the kids a place to belong. Some of the teenagers have difficult living situations that they are looking to escape. As one teenager told Boatwright, "It's a way to get out of the house, forget about all this, and party."Boatwright_214205_D1_BB 041In Boatwright's "Off The Wall" documentary, one teenager talks about how meaningful the backyard punk scene has become. "Family is like the true meaning of what keeps everyone together. And that's pretty much how our scene is, it's like a big family," she says.Boatwright_215272_Q 044At many of the concerts, there are no set times or set lists, says Javier Cabral, a LA Weekly writer, who was once heavily involved in the scene. While some shows have a promoter, many get put together at a moment's notice. They can fall apart when the bands can't find gas money to get to the gig.Boatwright_214205_D1_U 050Teenagers find out about the shows either through Facebook or mass texts. In order to get the invite, you have to be in the know.Boatwright_214205_D1_M 041Like most music scenes, the East L.A. scene comes with its own history, mythology, and current bands. The new teenagers continue the decades-long tradition by starting new bands or moshing at the shows.Boatwright_215272_V 008The music at the shows spans the numerous different sub-genres of punk rock, from ska (an upbeat, reggae-like punk) to street punk (a faster, more relentless version of hardcore punk). Boatwright_215469_V 009The moshing can get pretty intense, but it's all in good fun. When someone falls, usually a group of people step in to get him or her out of the way. For many, it's a safe outlet for the aggression and anger that the teenagers build up in daily life. Boatwright_215469_Z 013Cabral credits the shows with keeping him out of gang warfare. "If you have long hair or tight pants, you are considered a 'rocker' and usually left alone," writes Cabral.Boatwright_EastLA_PUNKS_5 6 13_D 054Boatwright produced a series of documentary episodes for Vans on the East L.A. scene. Check out the first episode below and watch the rest here.

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15 Things You Didn't Know About Pixar

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toy story disney buzz lightyear

In the 28 years that Pixar has been around, the animation studio has raked in 27 Oscars and over $8 billion dollars in gross revenues — off of only 14 movies. 

That's more than $500 million per feature. 

How does a company reach such insane levels of excellence? 

In new book "Creativity, Inc," long-time Pixar president Ed Catmull reveals the story behind the pixels, from the origin of the name to its wacky company perks and what really happened with Steve Jobs. 

Find the most surprising bits of Pixar's journey below. 

The main building on campus is called the Steve Jobs Building. 

The Pixar atriumIt's named for the Apple icon because he was the brain behind the building's collaboration-inducing structure. As Office Snapshots reports:

Pixar's campus design originally separated different employee disciplines into different buildings – one for computer scientists, another for animators, and a third building for everybody else. But because Jobs was fanatic about these unplanned collaborations, he envisioned a campus where these encounters could take place, and his design included a great atrium space that acts as a central hub for the campus.

The biography adds that Jobs believed that, "If a building doesn't encourage [collaboration], you'll lose a lot of innovation and the magic that's sparked by serendipity. So we designed the building to make people get out of their offices and mingle in the central atrium with people they might not otherwise see."

There's an annual event called "Pixarpalooza."

Since 2009, there's been an annual Battle of the Bands with Pixar employees. 

Animators can go wild decorating their workspaces. 

The Pixar team does much more than put up posters in their offices. The decoration gets a little maximal: 

"(Employees) spend their days inside pink dollhouses whose ceilings are hung with miniature chandeliers, tiki huts made of real bamboo, and castles whose meticulously painted, 15-foot-high Styrofoam turrets appear to be carved from stone," Catmull writes.

They have an ergonomist come in on a weekly basis.

Her name is Arlie Stern. She makes adjustments to the animators' workstations, so they don't get repetitive stress injury from years of hardcore mouse-clicking.

"The work (of animators) is precision intensive," she says. "Precision is a killer on the body, because in order to do something that requires precision with the body, you need to rest the arm, and if you don't give people a place to rest the arm, they're going to place the wrist on the desk right on the carpal tunnel," which can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome. 

Disney wanted the original "Toy Story" to be a musical. 

Since the conglomerate had so much success with musicals — "Lion King," "Beauty and the Beast," and "Aladdin" to name a few — its execs thought that "Toy Story" should have some musicality, too. But Pixar said no.

Pixar didn't (quite) start as a movie maker.

First it sold hardware, then software, and then it made animated short films and ads, Catmull shares. Its first big product was a high-end imaging computer with professional applications from meteorology to medicine. While the device never sold well, employee John Lasseter made computer-animated films to show off what it could do, like the groundbreaking Luxo Jr. in 1986.

Pixar also did some animated sequences for films, with Disney being an important partner. In order to bring in some cash, Pixar started making commercials for brands like Listerine, Trident, and Lifesavers in the early '90s. Then Pixar signed a three-movie deal with Disney, leading to "Toy Story" in 1995 — and everything changed. 

The name "Pixar" sprang out of a conversation between the co-founders.

Early in Pixar's life, co-founder Alvy Ray Smith thought the name should be "Pixer," since it sounded like a fake Spanish verb for "to make pictures." But another cofounder, Loren Carpenter,liked "Radar," since that sounded futuristic. So they combined the two: "Pixer + Radar = Pixar!" Catmull writes.

The Pixar Imaging Computer, in the fleshWhen Pixar started in 1986, its biggest product was the Pixar Imaging Computer.

"Who's going to buy a $125,000 image processor that requires a host computer and has software development tools but no applications software?" asked the June 1986 issue of Computer Graphics World

Before Pixar was its own thing, it was part of Lucasfilm.

In 1979, George Lucas recruited Catmull to helm the computer division of the rapidly growing film production company.

Pixar became its own company thanks to Steve Jobs.

In 1986, Jobs bought what was then Lucasfilm's Computer Graphics Division, then spun it off, turning it into an independent company.

"Toy Story 2" was originally supposed to be direct-to-video.

Disney didn't dig sequels for animated movies. They tried one, a rodent-filled romp called "Rescuers Down Under," and it promptly bombed upon release. Luckily, Pixar pushed back.

Movies at Pixar take forever to make.

"They are not beautiful, mature versions of the adults they will grow up to be," Catmull writes. "(The first mock-ups) are truly ugly: awkward and unformed, vulnerable and incomplete." And that's why they take forever to make: "Monsters University," for instance, took over four years to complete.

Pixar is guided by a "Brain Trust."

It's a tiny group of leaders — originally early employees like John Lasseter, Andrew StantonPete Docter, Lee Unkrich, and Joe Ranft — who give intensely candid critiques of films in progress.

Pixar has a school called Pixar University. 

Free classes include sculpting, painting, ballet, and live-action filmmaking.

"Simply by providing an excuse for us to all toil side by side, humbled by the challenge of sketching a self-portrait or writing computer code or taming a lump of clay," Catmull writes, "P.U. changed the culture for the better." 

Jobs wanted to sell Pixar to Microsoft.

The animation studio was bleeding money, so he thought to unload it. But then Pixar got Disney to distribute "Toy Story," which became an instant cash cow.

When a Pixar movie blows up at the box office, bonuses are handed out by hand. 

When Pixar produces a run-away hit, Catmull and the rest of the leadership team hand out checks to every person who worked on the movie. 

SEE ALSO: 22 Storytelling Tips For Writers From A Pixar Storyboard Artist

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