Married with Children International Remakes

Did you see how William Shatner RTed something I posted on Twitter?

WilliamShatner: “@bmc2o3: are you watching @WilliamShatner LIVE FROM #COMICCON LIKE ME CUZ YOU'RE A NERD?! http://t.co/UGZTxc1” Nerds unite! MBB

He even added a comment!  Yeah, I communicated with a legendary space captain from my handheld communication device.  And as a result, he demanded we unite.  (By the way, for those of you not in the know, "MBB" stands for "My Best, Bill".)

To further demonstrate how futuristic I can be, I put my now famous tech skills to work and found some video clips from around the world of remakes of Married with Children.  If you thought seeing the DVD special features with Homer speaking German were funny, or the international variations on Doc from Fraggle Rock were awesome to glimpse (one of them was a lighthouse keeper!), you will probably enjoy these clips.

First, let's refresh on the American original (just the opening credits, there are plenty of other clips on YouTube):

Married with Children
USA, premiered 1987

http://youtu.be/Ze1sx9YR2Ec

And now have a look at my two favorite MWC remakes--one from Croatia (The Waters of Marriage) and one from Hungary (A Terribly Neat Family in Budapest):


Bracne Vode (The Waters of Marriage)
Croatia, premiered in 2008
Bundy = Bandić

http://youtu.be/aJ-ETybNvR0


Egy rém rendes család Budapesten (A Terribly Neat Family in Budapest)
Hungary, premiered 2006
Bundy = Bándi

http://youtu.be/OTuDknjgh6U


While those two are great, there are still so many more...


Married for Life
UK, 1996
Bundy = Butler

http://youtu.be/QpsXJeV9E08


A Guerra dos Pintos (The War of the Pintos)
Brazil, premiered 1999
Bundy = Pinto

http://youtu.be/WjLE5m3Vlpg


Hilfe, meine Familie spinnt (Help, My Family is Nuts)
Germany, premiered 1993
Bundy = Strunk

Hilfe, meine Familie spinnt Intro - MyVideo



Casados con Hijos (Married with Children)
Argentina, premiered in 2006
Bundy = Argento

http://youtu.be/tAUktA0BIR8


Casado con Hijos (Married with Children)
Chile, premiered in 2005
Bundy = Larraín

http://youtu.be/nZtAFkonn28


Բնակարան N2 (Bnakaran N2) (Apartment #2)
Armenia, premiered 2009
The only thing I can find is a wacky music video featuring footage from the show:




Счастливы вместе (Sсhastlivy Vmeste) (Happy Together)
Russia, premiered 2006
Bundy = Bukin

http://youtu.be/5KnaMtYSz3Y


Matrimonio con hijos (Married with Children)
Spain, premiered 2006
Bundy = Cuatro

http://youtu.be/1cgDWoLxqSY


Casado Con Hijos (Married With Children)
Columbia, premiered 2004
Bundy = Rocha


I would watch all of these series if I could find the video with English subtitles!  If anyone has better clips or knows of other remakes let me know, I love these.

I used Wikipedia and Bundyology for the info to find these clips.

Mount Garfield (4500')

Overview:

Amy, Tim, Leela, and I climbed Mount Garfield (4500') starting from Gale River Road via the Garfield Trail (with the final 0.2 mile leg to the summit on the Garfield Ridge Trail), retracing our steps to get back:

• TIME: 5 hours 55 minutes (with breaks)
• DISTANCE: 10 miles (round trip)
• ELEVATION GAIN: 3,000 feet
• DATE: 7/10/2011

Here's an interactive Google Map I made of the trails we used.  Routes and distances are approximate (I did them freehand while looking at a topo map).  Note that I did not bother to show the Garfield Ridge Trail intersection.  You go right when you get to it on the way up.  The map is fun to view in Earth mode (will require plugin).


View Mount Garfield in a larger map

Trail Conditions:
This trail is excellent.  Not too difficult, long but easy to move fast.  There were a few small blowdowns in some spots, but nothing that caused a nuisance.  We did pass people with a dog that had been in an altercation with a porcupine (quills in face!), so be aware of that if you have a dog.  Leela didn't find any, but you never know.   Near the summit it gets tougher, with a lot of quick gain in elevation on larger rocks.  The difficulty increases a lot on the Garfield Ridge trail, which finally got me breathing heavy.  But it was a short stretch and not really that hard at all, looking back on it.  All in all, fantastic conditions.

Comments and Photos: 
I think my trail conditions basically covers how I feel about the trip up (and down) the mountain; I enjoyed it.  I'll point out that there are basically no views until you get to the summit.  Tim said without hesitation that Garfield had the best summit of all of the 4ks we've done so far, and I think I agree with him.  Unlike Carrigain, there are not a lot of trees in the way at the top, thus no tower is required.  There is a lot of space to spread out if it were crowded, too, making for a nice lunch.  We actually spent nearly an hour at the top, easily doubling any summit breaks we've had thus far.  And we had a new perspective on many of the 4ks in the area, having never hiked around there before, and Garfield is in relatively close proximity to some great mountains.  Lafayette towered over us to the west, and as you turn your gaze south you can see three more 4ks in a row: Lincoln, Liberty, and Flume.  Owl's Head, the notorious 16-18 mile hike, was dead south of Garfield, and you could easily see it's full prominence.  Washington's summit was just visible, as well as most of the northern presidentials.  OK enough listing, here are the photos.

The first entrance to Gale River Road was closed, so we had to go further up Route 3 to get to the other end of the loop.  Don't worry if you feel lost, just turn right at the hiker sign and continue for a while past the Gale River Trail TH, and then you'll find the Garfield Trail TH, shown here.

Amy & Leela at one of the brook crossings.  All crossings were easy.

Beautiful day in the woods.

A sweeping panorama along the Garfield Trail (click it to see it larger)

Here's the intersection with the Garfield Ridge Trail.  Go right to go to the summit of Garfield.

I took this picture because the Garfield Ridge Trail was in such contrast to the Garfield trail, in that it was steep and very rocky.

4ks, right to left: Lafayette, Lincoln, Liberty, Flume, and closer to us was Owl's head all the way to the left.  More are visible in the distance.

Amy looking east at the Twins and the Presidentials (in the distance), and Galehead, lower and closer to us.

This hike brought all 3 of our NH 4k counts to 12, meaning we are 1/4 of the way through them!

Tim at the summit structure.

Leela loved this summit, but ended up hurting her paws a little bit on the rocks.

Owl's Head, with the Osceolas in the background, among others

We could even see the top of Cannon

Flume (left) and Liberty (right)

Kind of guessing, but I think that's Passaconaway on the left and the Tripyramids to the middle/right

Looking up at the summit.

Leela looking down to Amy with the view to the north in the background.

Back on the way down, in a birch forest.  My new camera has a sweeping panorama feature, and this is the first time I decided to use it up to down.  Not great for traditional monitors.

Birch forest

Leela getting her last all natural drink of the hike.

Final Thoughts
I think Garfield was a great hike, and we made the best time so far, averaging over 2mph.  I'm not sure how tough it would be for those not accustomed to hiking, but my guess is it would not be too strenuous, considering the distance.  In the words of my brother, this hike is a treat.

Mount Jackson (4052')

Overview:

Amy, Tim, and I (no Leela!) climbed Mount Jackson (4052') starting from Route 302 via the Webster-Jackson Trail (retracing our steps to get back):

• TIME: 4 hours, 40 minutes (with breaks)
• DISTANCE: 5.2 miles (round trip)
• ELEVATION GAIN: 2,150 feet
• DATE: 7/3/2011

Here's an interactive Google Map I made of the trails we used.  Routes and distances are approximate (I did them freehand while looking at a topo map).  Note that I did not bother to show intersections; the trail was easy to follow.  The map is fun to view in Earth mode (will require plugin).


View Mount Jackson in a larger map

Trail Conditions:
The trail was fairly wet and often muddy, even before it rained. Though this hike was short, it was made somewhat difficult with the fairly steep sections and lots of rocks/boulders to deal with along the way. The last segment to reach the summit on this trail was a bit tricky, forcing us to pause and calculate good ways to navigate up the rocks. It started raining on our way up, so coming back down required some more attention, but I suppose we were being overly careful. The brook crossings were some of the easiest we've encountered.

Comments and Photos: 
Unlike our last hike up Isolation, this hike was very short (our shortest 4k so far). We were originally planning to loop over to Webster to make it more substantial and provide new, different views, but the rain made us reconsider and we headed back into the woods for cover. And even though it was a short hike in comparison with all other 4ks we've done, it was still a good, tough day out.

Trail was immediately steep, and climbed continually almost the whole time.

The only significant crossing, and it was easy.

Junction to go up Jackson or Webster (and continue on to other points).

Thought we were almost done, but we had about 45 minutes to go I think.

The final push was even steeper than it looks here.

It was raining!  But the views weren't really that bad.

Looking East from the summit of Mount Jackson

For a little while, we could see Mount Washington easily.

Someone left this on the summit cairn.

Headed back down in the rain.

Amy was trucking ahead of us the whole way down like a pro.

Elephant Head is right off of 302 off of the Webster-Jackson Trail.  A 0.2 mile hike that we should do someday.

Final Thoughts
This is a relatively short hike that I feel like the general population can enjoy, and get some fairly difficult climbing under their belt without being stuck in the woods all day.  It confirmed that all of the Presidentials have great views for me, and I'm excited to do more!  Plus, being on the trails that would be used for the end of a Presidential traverse planted that idea in my head again.  The rain was kind of a bummer, and our bags are still drying out in this humid weather, but hey, it's just water.