As reported in the Toronto Star, Kevin Bacon, in a January 1994 interview with Premiere magazine discussing the film The River Wild, mentioned that "he had worked with everybody in Hollywood or someone who’s worked with them."[1] On April 7, 1994, a lengthy newsgroup thread headed "Kevin Bacon is the Center of the Universe" appeared.[2] Four Albright College students: Craig Fass, Christian Gardner, Brian Turtle, and Mike Ginelli created the game early in 1994.[1] According to an interview with them in the spring 1999 issue of the college's magazine, The Albright Reporter, they were watching Footloose during a heavy snowstorm. When the film was followed by The Air Up There, they began to speculate on how many movies Bacon had been in and the number of people with whom he had worked. In the interview, Brian Turtle explained how "it became one of our stupid party tricks I guess. People would throw names at us and we'd connect them to Kevin Bacon."They wrote a letter to talk show host Jon Stewart, telling him that "Kevin Bacon was the center of the entertainment universe" and explaining the game.[3] They appeared on The Jon Stewart Show and The Howard Stern Show with Bacon to explain the game. Bacon admitted that he initially disliked the game because he believed it was ridiculing him, but he eventually came to enjoy it. The three inventors released a book, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon (ISBN 9780452278448), with an introduction written by Bacon.[3] A board game based on the concept was released by Endless Games.Bacon also appeared in a commercial for the Visa check card that parodied the game. In the commercial, Bacon wants to write a check to buy a book, but the clerk asks for his ID, which he does not have. He leaves and returns with a group of people, then says to the clerk, "Okay, I was in a movie with an extra, Eunice, whose hairdresser, Wayne, attended Sunday school with Father O'Neill, who plays racquetball with Dr. Sanjay, who recently removed the appendix of Kim, who dumped you sophomore year. So you see, we're practically brothers."[4] In a similar vein, Dave Barry, in a column describing the unexpected complications that emerged when he attempted to find out the precise wording of the Lone Ranger's catchphrase, connected the Lone Ranger to Kevin Bacon in the following way: the Lone Ranger was the Green Hornet's great-uncle; the Green Hornet and O. J. Simpson both hung out with people named Kato; Simpson and Robert Wagner co-starred in The Towering Inferno; Wagner and Bacon co-starred in Wild Things.[5]The concept was also presented in an episode of the TV show Mad About You dated November 19, 1996, in which a character expressed the opinion that every actor is only three degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon. Bacon spoofed the concept himself in a cameo he performed for the independent film We Married Margo.[6] Playing himself in a 2003 episode of Will and Grace, Bacon connects himself to Val Kilmer through Tom Cruise and jokes "Hey, that was a short one!".[7] The headline of The Onion, a satirical newspaper, on October 30, 2002, was "Kevin Bacon Linked To Al-Qaeda".[8] Bacon provides the voice-over commentary for the NY Skyride attraction at the Empire State Building in New York City. At several points throughout the commentary, Bacon alludes to his connections to Hollywood stars via other actors with whom he has worked.In 2009, Bacon narrated a National Geographic Channel show "The Human Family Tree"[9] – a program charting the work of the Genographic Project and its work on the genetic interconnectedness of all humans. In 2011, James Franco made reference to Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon while hosting the 83rd Academy Awards. In the summer of 2012, Google began to offer the ability to find an actor's Bacon number on its main page, by searching for the actor's name preceded by the phrase "bacon number". EE began a UK television advertising campaign on November 3, 2012, based on the Six Degrees concept, where Kevin Bacon illustrates his connections and draws attention to how the EE 4G network allows similar connectivity.[10]The most highly connected nodes of the Internet have been referred to as "the 'Kevin Bacons' of the Web," inasmuch as they enable most users to navigate to most sites in 19 clicks or less.[11][12] In "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "Lame Claim to Fame," one of the lines is, "I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who knows Kevin Bacon," leading to a Bacon Number of 6.