William Shakespeare Shakespeare Shakespeare Shakespeare you're not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon this is not Shakespeare oh I did Shakespeare in the Park max I got mugged it's been 400 years since Shakespeare's death and all the world is still his stage and we men and women merely his unwitting fans every single day whether we know it or not we use words and phrases that Shakespeare added to the English dictionary not not who's there yeah that's a wild goose chase over here at Nakatomi Plaza I was originally designed for SAS ination missions she was the oldest adorning Shakespeare it turns out isn't just a literary Titan he's a literary termite avenged brewing into all sorts of places you wouldn't expect Chewbacca isn't just grieving the severed head of his buddy it's actually a nod to Hamlet alas poor Yorick that line and that skull have been cropping up ever since there are more than 400 movies based on Shakespeare's plays according to the Guinness Book of World Records more than any other author in history Romeo and Juliet alone has been staged for the screen over 50 times even if you don't think you know Shakespeare you know that balcony of course there's the most famous Shakespearean line of all to be no not to be that is the question it's actually a speech about suicide not a topic you typically hear about on Sesame Street be or not Abbey or Gilligan's Island that's all I ask to be or not or a muppet Hospital make up your mind to be or not to be or an alien space station of course it's not just classic lines and seams that inject Shakespeare into our daily lives his stories are driving the plots behind some of the biggest series on television house of cards the tale of a power couple with vaulting ambitions sounds a lot like Macbeth with a dash of in-your-face confessionals from Richard to third one heartbeat away from the presidency not a single vote cast in my name Sons of Anarchy a saga about the leader of a biker gang haunted by the death of his father and power-hungry stepfather has been called Hamlet's on Harleys in Empire a record mogul has three children vying to inherit his hip-hop kingdom it can only be one of a situation that goes nearly as badly for him as it did for King Lear and it's not just culture its commerce don't betray us thy family cell phone Shakespeare maybe 400 years gone but he's in high demand on Madison Avenue William Shakespeare world stage and men and women a merely plate and one man in his time plays many parts many more parts and Shakespeare himself could have ever guessed hey Shakespeare would you write a TV sitcom for a Klondike bar mythix to talk about Willie Oh