Emo Nemo

Mily

Sarah

Shaidrian Rios

Jimmy Beans

miCCwatreSSop

Julie Wynne - videos

Kapuster

Nicky Tallon

Harini Sen

Vastralaya

Evan Shively (Perseus271)

The Robinsons leave their home in Switzerland planning to settle half a world away. But things do not turn out as they had expected. The sole survivors of a terrible shipwreck, they wash ashore to learn that the danger has only begun. Their new world will test their courage, cleverness, endurance, and faith as they struggle to survive and create a civilization of their own in the wilderness.  Note: This Townsend Library classic has been carefully edited to be more accessible to today's students. It includes a brief author's biography and an afterword that provides important context about the work.

Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War.It is no secret that Alcott based Little Women on her own early life. While her father, the freethinking reformer and abolitionist Bronson Alcott, hobnobbed with such eminent male authors as Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Louisa supported herself and her sisters with "woman’s work,” including sewing, doing laundry, and acting as a domestic servant. But she soon discovered she could make more money writing. Little Women brought her lasting fame and fortune, and far from being the "girl’s book” her publisher requested, it explores such timeless themes as love and death, war and peace, the conflict between personal ambition and family responsibilities, and the clash of cultures between Europe and America.

There's an alternate cover edition hereSeabiscuit was one of the most electrifying and popular attractions in sports history and the single biggest newsmaker in the world in 1938, receiving more coverage than FDR, Hitler, or Mussolini. But his success was a surprise to the racing establishment, which had written off the crooked-legged racehorse with the sad tail. Three men changed Seabiscuit’s fortunes:Charles Howard was a onetime bicycle repairman who introduced the automobile to the western United States and became an overnight millionaire. When he needed a trainer for his new racehorses, he hired Tom Smith, a mysterious mustang breaker from the Colorado plains. Smith urged Howard to buy Seabiscuit for a bargain-basement price, then hired as his jockey Red Pollard, a failed boxer who was blind in one eye, half-crippled, and prone to quoting passages from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Over four years, these unlikely partners survived a phenomenal run of bad fortune, conspiracy, and severe injury to transform Seabiscuit from a neurotic, pathologically indolent also-ran into an American sports icon. Author Laura Hillenbrand brilliantly re-creates a universal underdog story, one that proves life is a horse race.From the Hardcover edition.

A true classic with a timeless message, The Story of Ferdinand has enchanted readers since it was first published in 1936. All the other bulls would run and jump and butt their heads together. But Ferdinand would rather sit and smell the flowers. And he does just that, until the day a bumblebee and some men from the Madrid bullfights give gentle Ferdinand a chance to be the most ferocious star of the corrida—and the most unexpected comic hero. This cherished hardcover is perfect for those who love Ferdinand, and those who have yet to meet him.

Black Beauty spends his youth in a loving home, surrounded by friends and cared for by his owners. But when circumstances change, he learns that not all humans are so kind. Passed from hand to hand, Black Beauty witnesses love and cruelty, wealth and poverty, friendship and hardship . . . Will the handsome horse ever find a happy and lasting home? Carefully retold in clear contemporary language, and presented with delightful illustrations, these favorite classic stories capture the heart and imagination of young readers. By retelling the story in a shorter, simpler form, these books become highly engaging for children, and the color illustrations help with both comprehension and interest level. Black Beauty is part of a collectible series that has strong gift appeal.

When her father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the north of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of the local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. This is intensified by her tempestuous relationship with the mill-owner and self-made man, John Thornton, as their fierce opposition over his treatment of his employees masks a deeper attraction.In North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell skillfully fuses individual feeling with social concern, and in Margaret Hale creates one of the most original heroines of Victorian literature.

Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ISBN13 9780380395866 here.Set in England's Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape, this stirring tale of adventure, courage and survival follows a band of very special creatures on their flight from the intrusion of man and the certain destruction of their home. Led by a stouthearted pair of friends, they journey forth from their native Sandleford Warren through the harrowing trials posed by predators and adversaries, to a mysterious promised land and a more perfect society.

This handsome edition brings all of Beatrix Potter's 23 tales and verses together in one book. Each story is complete and unabridged, and all the original illustrations, both color and black-and-white, are included. Potter's tales were often connected with real people, places and animals, so each story has a brief introductory note about its history. As an added bonus, The Complete Tales also includes four other works by Potter, which remained unpublished in her lifetime.  As part of Peter Rabbit's centennial celebration, the first printing of The Complete Tales will be published with a limited edition lithograph inside.

Doomed to - or blessed with - eternal life after drinking from a magic spring, the Tuck family wanders about trying to live as inconspicuously and comfortably as they can. When ten-year-old Winnie Foster stumbles on their secret, the Tucks take her home and explain why living forever at one age is less a blessing that it might seem. Complications arise when Winnie is followed by a stranger who wants to market the spring water for a fortune.

This is a monster of a book--XXVIII chapters, 897 pages. It was just at the beginning of the attempt to address psychology scientifically, rather than philosophically, though it has a foot in each camp. Published in 1891, it precedes Freud, who however is mentioned in a few places. I am going though it slowly, one chapter at a time, and recording impressions along the way.Ch. V: The Automaton-Theory. This stands up remarkably well. Perhaps that means we've really learned very little new about the mind-problem. James discusses the theory, now common and then already advanced by many of his contemporaries, that conscious, ideas, will, and so forth are mere epiphenomena that have no effect on behavior. These theorists started with the discovery that electricity can make frog legs contract, and the difficulty of seeing any way a mental event could affect a molecule or a cell, and concluded that mental states are epiphenomena of physiologic events. James acknowledges the difficulty of seeing how the mental can affect the physical, but rejects the mechanistic conclusion as not yet proved. He also notes that goal-oriented mental processes would have a clear advantage in natural selection--no mechanism cares where it is going, he says, and a locomotive would not care a wit if it pulled its car over an open drawbridge.Ch VI: The Mind-Stuff Theory. James grapples with the Hard Problem of consciousness: how a biological mechanism, however complicated, can produce consciousness. He spends a great deal of time dealing with the theory, apparently current at the time, that elementary particles have little minds as elementary properties, and these combine to produce a human mind. It sounds ridiculous, but we have to remember that people were desperate for some solution to the Hard Problem (and indeed still are). James does not care for any of the solutions, but somewhat amazingly he comes around to admitting that the traditional religious soul-theory (that a non-material soul inhabits the body and provides the mind in the brain) is the best one available to him.Ch VII: James turns to the methods of psychology. He identifies three: (1) Introspection, the age-old method of philosophers of the mind. Comte had objected that the mind cannot both think and observe itself thinking at the same time, so introspection much be illusionary; James disposes of this by saying we first think, then remember thinking. For myself, I don't see why the mind can't do two things at once--we certainly process sensations and think at the same time. (2) Experimentation, followed by statistical evaluation of the results, which James describes as new and growing and likely to take over the field. How right he was! (3) Comparison with the behavior of animals.Ch VIII: James discusses first the phenomenon of "unconscious thoughts" (the mentally ill--James calls them "hysterics"--sometimes demonstrate some kind of awareness of things they supposedly cannot sense because they are blind or numb; the same is true of some under hypnosis), and then the means by which the mind connects to the brain, and thence to the rest of the body and to the world. On the latter, he confesses that he just doesn't know.Ch IX: The Stream of Thought. James is at pains to refute the idea of Hume and others that thought is a sequence of individual ideas. He says it is a continuous stream, with overlapping ideas constantly coming to be and fading away. Sounds reasonable to me. The method here is totally that of philosophy, i.e. reason and introspection. It makes me want to read a modern text on psychology and see how much of that is done now.Ch X: The Consciousness of Self. This is a long and quite varied chapter. The first part is about what one feels in oneself or belongs to oneself, including the body, material things, and spiritual feelings. This part seems almost like pop psychology. Then James goes into various theories of actual seat or nature of these feelings, the pure self or Ego. These take him deep into discussions with Kant, Hume, and other luminaries, where I can scarcely follow. The three theories he discusses are: (1) Spiritualist, the theory that there is an immaterial substance or soul that is the seat of the Ego--this James says he cannot disprove, but he finds it unilluminating and says that it is scientifically useless because it is untestable; (2) Associationist, which takes the Ego to be just the stream of thoughts sharing common memories and each remembering those past--this is what James favors; and (3) Transcendentalist, Kant's theory, which I will not attempt to summarize because I do not really understand it. The final part of the chapter takes up "The Mutations of the Self," and treats us to various case histories of perplexing multiple personalities, apparent spiritualist possessions, and the like. James marvels at the similarity of the various mediumistic possessions he has witnessed--half of them claim to be departed American Indians, and almost all of them speak of love and harmony, of their current happy afterlife in a sort of summer-land, and describe the ailments of those present. This is true even for people who have not been exposed to spiritualism. These sorts of things were evidently very common in James' era. He says he has no theory to account for them, but "a serious study of these trance-phenomena is one of the greatest needs in psychology." As far as I know, these phenomena have died away without getting that serious study--or else they got that study an evaporated under it.Ch. XI: Attention. A comparatively straightforward chapter. He peremptorily discards the idea of Locke, Hume, and others that our minds are like inert clay on which the senses make impressions. Clearly, he says, when we direct our attention at particular sensations those make a much deeper impression. Then he takes a very scientific turn, relaying the results of various experiments on how attention affects reaction time, complete with average error. Then back to philosophy for the question of whether voluntary attention is the resultant of brain processes, or a force of its own. He says that there is no way science can resolve this questions, and so those who believe either alternative should be left to their opinion in peace.Ch XII: Conception. "The function by which we identify a numerically distinct and permanent subject of discourse." James regards conceptions as unchangeable; our thought takes place by rearranging and relating them. It is the common conception linked to them that makes things seem to be the "same." James has no difficulty with abstract conceptions, or conceptions of universals, unlike some other philosophers. Indeed, he devotes much of the chapter to ridiculing Berkeley, Mills, and other such thinkers. It is remarkable that such towering intellects, all presumably observing the same phenomena, come to such different descriptions of them, and in fact cannot understand how the others could make such mistakes. For these things all we have is introspection, and that is famously unreliable.Ch. XIII: Discrimination and Comparison. A long chapter about how we judge things to be the same or different, about equally divided between arguments from introspection and actual experiments. There is a lot of consideration and impatient dismissal of the ideas of earlier writers.Ch XIV: Association. Only sometimes do we make associations by reason. More often it is by habit, based on experience. In fact neural habit is the one elementary cause of association, but it is made more likely by recency, intensity, and congruence of mood, as well as by simple repetition. Still, there is a lot that is not explained by these and seems to be a matter of chance (in other words, "cerebral causes" that are "too subtle for analysis"). There is also association by similarity, when two ideas have some overlap. But why does the mind follow one overlapping idea and not another? We cannot tell--maybe the cause is in consciousness. (James is refreshingly ready to identify phenomena that he just cannot explain.) In addition to reverie or free association, there is also voluntary thought (to remember something, or to solve a problem), but this works just like free association, with the consciousness rejecting ideas that don't advance the purpose. Citing Hobbes, Hume, and Mill, James traces all mental faculties ultimately to types of association (he also draws examples from Jane Austen's books--he is quite well-read!). Almost all of this chapter is drawn from introspection, but he still talks in the language of an unknown physiology--brain processes that "vibrate" and "discharge."Ch XV: The Perception of Time. What we perceive as "now" must actually be short interval, perhaps a few second, constantly added to at the front and fading away at the back. An actual instantaneous "now" would provide no feeling of before and after. This is our only direct intuition of time. Longer times are conceived of by multiplying this variable short interval. Various experiments give evidence of the shortest perceptible durations, which varies with sense (sight, sound, etc.). We do not sense time itself, only things that happen in time. Thus the passage of time seems sometimes faster than others. Kant's notion of a direct "intuition" of and infinitely extended time is baseless--extended time is derived from intuited short time.Ch XVI: Memory. Memory is not just reoccurrence of an idea--that would be mere repetition--but recall with the additional idea of having had the thought in the past. Memory is attributed to pathways in the brain. Good memory is measured by both the readiness with which those pathways are made and how long they last. More can be remembered by paying closer attention or other self-discipline, but brute capacity for memory is innate and cannot be improved (on inquiry James found that experienced actors had no less labor remembering their lines than when they were younger). The method James uses here is mainly introspection and reason, along with quoting eminent Germans. Towards the end of the chapter he does report a few structured experiments others have made, together with various facts and anecdotes about how forgetting occurs. At the end he returns to philosophy: the impossibility of explaining conscious memory is just a part of that of explaining consciousness in general.Ch. XVIII: Imagination. Largely quotations from other scholars. James is surprised to find that different people form mental images very differently--some visual, some auditory, some in other ways (this is based on interviews and surveys). He seems to be discussing what we call "photographic memory," though he doesn't use the term. James favors the view that mental images are the same thing, using the same mental circuitry, as physical perception, only much weaker. It seems unlikely to me that this can be all that they are. A vivid mental picture can seem much stronger than a weak perception, without any possibility of confusing it with reality.Ch. XIX: The Perception of "Things". The eye can sense only patches of color, but we perceive a solid chair. Clearly the brain does a lot of work to unconsciously turn sensations into perceptions, a skill probably learned in early childhood. Misperceptions lead to illusions, of which many amusing examples are given. Misperception can be triggered by a preconceived idea. Hallucinations.Ch. XX: The Perception of Space. This very long chapter (196 pages) perhaps spends too much time finding philosophical difficulties in how we so easily derive the idea of three-dimensional space from the sparse inputs of sight and touch.Ch. XXI: Belief. Belief is an emotion or psychic attitude, an irreducible aspect of perception of certain ideas held to be real. Everything perceived is believed, unless some other perception contradicts it, in which case a judgment must be made which to admit and which to deny. Modes of reality: (1) The physical as sensed; (2) The ideal physical world of a scientist; (3) Logical, mathematical, ethical, aesthetical reality; (4) Common ideas, e.g. the sun rises and sets; (5) Myth. "Whatever excites and stimulates our interest is real." "The fons et origo of all reality . . . is thus subjective, is ourselves." Nothing is more real than one's sense of one's own existence. Sense objects are either reality or the test of reality. Appearance needs reality in order to exist, but reality needs appearance in order to be known. Touch conveys a more solid and incontrovertible reality than the other senses. We believe in ideas because of the "bodily commotion" they produce. Only the most highly developed man can suspend belief in the presence of an emotionally exciting idea. Philosophic agnosticism is impossible--man needs a belief in purpose for himself, and will invent one if none is given him. Will and belief are two names for the same psychological phenomenon (directed at things we can affect, and at things we cannot).Ch. XXII: Reasoning. This chapter proceeds mostly by philosophical introspection. It is hard to say exactly what reasoning is. It seems to have something to do with one idea succeeding another. Better reasoners have more apt and more essential succeeding ideas. Reasoning requires that only a part of the characteristics of each idea be considered. The inferior reasoning powers of women and of savages are explained.Ch. XXIII: The Production of Movement. This very short chapter serves mainly as an introduction to the next three, on motion by instinct, by emotion, and by volition. The main method here is observation and experimentation. James claims that every feeling produces a movement of the entire organism in all its parts, though the motion in a particular part may be undetectable. This is shown by how people jump when startled, and by some experiments that I was unaware of that show that one's hand strength increased when illuminated by certain colors of light, and by other similar curious observations.*** I have run out of the space that Goodreads allows for reviews. I can hardly blame them, but I am committed to this project I have spent more than five years on. Why, it's hard to say. I will continue the chapter summaries for my own edification.

"I am neither a theologian, nor a scholar learned in the history of religions, nor an anthropologist. Psychology is the only branch of learning in which I am particularly versed. To the psychologist the religious propensities of man must be at least as interesting as any other of the facts pertaining to his mental constitution. It would seem, therefore, as a psychologist, the natural thing for me would be to invite you to a descriptive survey of those religious propensities."  When William James went to the University of Edinburgh in 1901 to deliver a series of lectures on "natural religion," he defined religion as "the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine." Considering religion, then, not as it is defined by--or takes place in--the churches, but as it is felt in everyday life, he undertook a project that, upon completion, stands not only as one of the most important texts on psychology ever written, not only as a vitally serious contemplation of spirituality, but for many critics one of the best works of nonfiction written in the 20th century. Reading The Varieties of Religious Experience, it is easy to see why. Applying his analytic clarity to religious accounts from a variety of sources, James elaborates a pluralistic framework in which "the divine can mean no single quality, it must mean a group of qualities, by being champions of which in alternation, different men may all find worthy missions." It's an intellectual call for serious religious tolerance--indeed, respect--the vitality of which has not diminished through the subsequent decades.

Harriet the Spy has a secret notebook that she fills with utterly honest jottings about her parents, her classmates, and her neighbors. Every day on her spy route she "observes" and notes down anything of interest to her:I BET THAT LADY WITH THE CROSS-EYE LOOKS IN THE MIRROR AND JUST FEELS TERRIBLE.PINKY WHITEHEAD WILL NEVER CHANGE. DOES HIS MOTHER HATE HIM? IF I HAD HIM I'D HATE HIM.IF MARION HAWTHORNE DOESN'T WATCH OUT SHE'S GOING TO GROW UP INTO A LADY HITLER.But when Harriet's notebook is found by her schoolmates, their anger and retaliation and Harriet's unexpected responses explode in a hilarious way.

At sixteen, Anne is grown up...almost. Her gray eyes shine like evening stars, but her red hair is still as peppery as her temper. In the years since she arrived at Green Gables as a freckle-faced orphan, she has earned the love of the people of Avonlea and a reputation for getting into scrapes. But when Anne begins her job as the new schoolteacher, the real test of her character begins. Along with teaching the three Rs, she is learning how complicated life can be when she meddles in someone else's romance, finds two new orphans at Green Gables, and wonders about the strange behaviour of the very handsome Gilbert Blythe. As Anne enters womanhood, her adventures touch the heart and the funny bone.

An alternate cover edition can be found hereIn the Pacific there is an island that looks like a big fish sunning itself in the sea. Around it, blue dolphins swim, otters play, and sea elephants and sea birds abound. Once, Indians also lived on the island. And when they left and sailed to the east, one young girl was left behind.This is the story of Karana, the Indian girl who lived alone for years on the Island of the Blue Dolphins. Year after year, she watched one season pass into another and waited for a ship to take her away. But while she waited, she kept herself alive by building shelter, making weapons, finding food, and fighting her enemies, the wild dogs. It is not only an unusual adventure of survival, but also a tale of natural beauty and personal discovery.

Sara Crewe, an exceptionally intelligent and imaginative student at Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies, is devastated when her adored, indulgent father dies. Now penniless and banished to a room in the attic, Sara is demeaned, abused, and forced to work as a servant. How this resourceful girl's fortunes change again is at the center of A Little Princess, one of the best-loved stories in all of children's literature. This unique and fully annotated edition appends excerpts from Frances Hodgson Burnett's original 1888 novella Sara Crewe and the stage play that preceded the novel, as well as an early story, "Behind the White Brick," allowing readers to see how A Little Princess evolved. In his delightful introduction, U. C. Knoepflmacher considers the fairy-tale allusions and literary touchstones that place the book among the major works of Victorian literature, and shows it to be an exceptionally rich and resonant novel.

Anne's own true love, Gilbert Blythe, is finally a doctor, and in the sunshine of the old orchard, among their dearest friends, they are about to speak their vows. Soon the happy couple will be bound for a new life together and their own dream house, on the misty purple shores of Four Winds Harbor.A new life means fresh problems to solve, fresh surprises. Anne and Gilbert will make new friends and meet their neighbors: Captain Jim, the lighthouse attendant, with his sad stories of the sea; Miss Cornelia Bryant, the lady who speaks from the heart -- and speaks her mind; and the tragically beautiful Leslie Moore, into whose dark life Anne shines a brilliant light.

Aesop's Fables or Aesopica refers to a collection of fables credited to Aesop (620-560 BC), a slave and story-teller who lived in Ancient Greece. Aesop's Fables have become a blanket term for collections of brief fables, usually involving anthropomorphic animals. Many stories included in Aesop's Fables, such as The Fox and the Grapes (from which the idiom "sour grapes" was derived), The Tortoise and the Hare, The North Wind and the Sun and The Boy Who Cried Wolf, are well-known throughout the world.

When James accidentally drops some magic crystals by the old peach tree, strange things start to happen. The peach at the top of the tree begins to grow, and before long it's as big as a house. When James discovers a secret entranceway into the fruit and crawls inside, he meets wonderful new friends--the Old-Green-Grasshopper, the dainty Ladybug, and the Centipede of the multiple boots. After years of feeling like an outsider in his aunts' house, James finally found a place where he belongs. With a snip of the stem, the peach household starts rolling away--and the adventure begins!Roald Dahl's first and most widely celebrated book for young people continues to thrill readers around the world."This is a stunning book to be cherished for its story, a superb fantasy."--Chicago Tribune"A beautifully written, fantastic book."--Christian Science Monitor

Through Jim Burden's endearing, smitten voice, we revisit the remarkable vicissitudes of immigrant life in the Nebraska heartland, with all its insistent bonds. Guiding the way are some of literature's most beguiling characters: the Russian brothers plagued by memories of a fateful sleigh ride, Antonia's desperately homesick father and self-indulgent mother, and the coy Lena Lingard. Holding the pastoral society's heart, of course, is the bewitching, free-spirited Antonia.

The magically long-haired Rapunzel has spent her entire life in a tower, but now that a runaway thief has stumbled upon her, she is about to discover the world for the first time, and who she really is.

2010 computer-animated musical fantasy-comedy film by Disney

Sharknado is a series of six American made-for-television science fiction action comedy horror disaster films released by Syfy between 2013 and 2018. It has since been expanded into video games and comics, including a spin-off film, Sharknado: Heart of Sharkness, that was released in 2015. The first two films received mixed to positive reviews from critics, while the others received negative reviews.

A young New York socialite becomes interested in a young man who has moved into her apartment building, but her past threatens to get in the way.

A poet falls for a beautiful courtesan whom a jealous duke covets.

A poor but hopeful boy seeks one of the five coveted golden tickets that will send him on a tour of Willy Wonka's mysterious chocolate factory.

Intertwining couples and singles in Los Angeles break-up and make-up based on the pressures and expectations of Valentine's Day.

2010 romantic comedy film directed by Garry Marshall

Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy.

A confined but troubled rock star descends into madness in the midst of his physical and social isolation from everyone.

1982 British live-action/animated musical drama film

The Beatles agree to accompany Captain Fred in his yellow submarine and go to Pepperland to free it from the music-hating Blue Meanies.

Good girl Sandy Olsson and greaser Danny Zuko fell in love over the summer. When they unexpectedly discover they're now in the same high school, will they be able to rekindle their romance?

1978 romantic musical film directed by Randal Kleiser

An adventurous 11-year-old girl finds another world that is a strangely idealized version of her frustrating home, but it has sinister secrets.

Determined to make her own path in life, Princess Merida (Kelly Macdonald) defies a custom that brings chaos to her kingdom. Granted one wish, Merida must rely on her bravery and her archery skills to undo a beastly curse.

2012 American computer-animated fantasy film

Competition between the maid of honor and a bridesmaid, over who is the bride's best friend, threatens to upend the life of an out-of-work pastry chef.

A clean-cut high school student relies on the school's rumor mill to advance her social and financial standing.

Beca, a freshman at Barden University, is cajoled into joining The Bellas, her school's all-girls singing group. Injecting some much needed energy into their repertoire, The Bellas take on their male rivals in a campus competition.

A young soprano becomes the obsession of a disfigured and murderous musical genius who lives beneath the Paris Opéra House.

2004 musical film directed by Joel Schumacher

Celebrates the birth of show business and tells of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a spectacle that became a worldwide sensation.

2017 American biographical musical film directed by Michael Gracey

A mermaid princess makes a Faustian bargain in an attempt to become human and win a prince's love.

1989 American animated musical fantasy film

High School Musical is a 2006 American musical television film directed by Kenny Ortega and written by Peter Barsocchini. The 63rd Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM) and first installment of the High School Musical film series, the film stars Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Alyson Reed, Corbin Bleu, and Monique Coleman. In High School Musical, Troy Bolton (Efron), the basketball team captain, and Gabriella Montez (Hudgens), an academically-gifted transfer student, try out for the lead parts in their school musical, causing division among the school's cliques.

A newly-engaged couple have a breakdown in an isolated area and must seek shelter at the bizarre residence of Dr. Frank-n-Furter.

A comedy revolving around a group of teenage friends, their mishaps, and their coming of age, set in 1970s Wisconsin.

A streetwise, poor young man from Philadelphia is sent by his mother to live with his aunt, uncle and cousins in their Bel-Air mansion.

A returning champion and two challengers test their buzzer skills and their knowledge in a wide range of academic and popular categories.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show is an American daytime television variety comedy talk show that was created and hosted by its namesake Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it was produced by Telepictures and aired in syndication. The majority of stations owned by NBC Owned Television Stations, along with Hearst Television and Tegna, served as the program's largest affiliate base. For its first five seasons, the show was taped in Studio 11 at NBC Studios in Burbank, California. From season 6 onwards, the show moved to being taped at Stage 1 on the nearby Warner Bros. lot. Since the beginning of the sixth season, The Ellen DeGeneres Show has been broadcast in high definition.

A social experiment show which takes controversial situations to the streets of America to see how everyday citizens will react.

This series follows the Special Victims Unit, a specially trained squad of detectives in the N.Y.P.D., who investigate sexually related crimes.

American police procedural crime drama television series

A weekly documentary in which two Hollywood special effects experts attempt to debunk urban legends by directly testing them.

A weekly talent competition where an array of performers -- from singers and dancers, to comedians and novelty acts -- vie for a $1 million cash prize.

televised American talent show competition

Varieties of celebrities pair up to do battle each week using lip sync as their weapon to out do each other. The audience is the judge, deciding which candidate does the best lip sync performance.

A reality show where a group of contestants are stranded in a remote location with little more than the clothes on their back. The lone survivor of this contest takes home a million dollars.

The cases of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service's Washington, D.C. Major Case Response Team, led by Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

American military drama/police procedural fictional television series

A family that has faced hardship has their dilapidated house completely rebuilt while they are away on vacation for a week.

Four famous musicians search for the best voices in America and will mentor these singers to become artists. America will decide which singer will be worthy of the grand prize.

American singing competition television series

Oprah Winfrey hosts a live audience talk-show with celebrity guests and discusses daily stories.

U.S. reality show based on the British series "Strictly Come Dancing," where celebrities partner up with professional dancers and compete against each other in weekly elimination rounds to determine a winner.

Multiple teams race around the globe for $1,000,000 to 'amazing' locations.

Eight a cappella singing groups compete for a recording contract.

Shaun Murphy, a young surgeon with autism and Savant syndrome, is recruited into the surgical unit of a prestigious hospital.

Michael Carbonaro, an experienced magician, performs illusions and magic tricks on unsuspecting people in everyday situations.

A young woman returns to her hometown to help save her sister's failing inn, where she contends with memories and faces from her past.

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