MISSING IN ACTION?
At the funeral for Leo McGarry in last week's 'The West Wing', we saw many characters from the series' past who returned just to film these scenes as just cameos with no dialogue: former Vice President John Hoynes, Security Advisor Nancy MacNally, Congresswoman Andie Wyatt, and the three Bartlet daughters.
However, there were others we didn't get a chance to see at the funeral who made significant contributions to the series and to the Bartlet administration over the last seven years. Of these, Sam Seaborn's absence will probably be splained away this coming Sunday when Rob Lowe returns to the series after three years away.
But what of the others like Jordan Kendall (Leo's attorney and former girl-friend), Mandy Hampton (DNC political consultant), Surgeon General Millicent Griffith, Secret Service Agent Ron Butterfield, General Alexander of the Joint Cheifs Of Staff, White House Counsel Oliver Babish and his predecessor Lionel Tribby, Chief Justice Evelyn Baker Lang and fellow Justices Christopher Mulready and Roberto Mendoza, and former President Glenallen Walken?
Who says they weren't there? Did you see the size of that crowd in the National Cathedral? We didn't even see 1/20th of the people attending Leo's funeral in those five minutes of screen time.
And anybody who says they couldn't be there because the actors weren't there to be filmed just doesn't understand the concept of Toobworld........
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ACROSS THE MULTIVERSE
Detectives Green and Briscoe of 'Law & Order' meet Bruce Wayne of 'Batman':
http://img85.imageshack.us/my.php?image=legendsofthedarkknight202pg068.jpg
(Thanks to hooper x)
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SPIN-OFF CITY
This past Monday, Joan's cousin dated a player for the San Diego Sabers on 'Girlfriends'. It was a showcase for a potential spin-off sitcom to be called 'The Game', which is hoping to land a spot on the very competitive fall schedule for the CW.
The CW is rising from the combined ashes of both the WB and UPN, which means more than half of the shows currently being broadcast on both networks will have to go.
But 'The Game' may have a jump shot edge over the competition in that 'Girlfriends' has proven to be quite a ratings warhorse and because Kelsey Grammar has been one of the executive producers.
('The Game' is a terrible title, by the way, but so is 'Girlfriends' and so was 'Friends' in my opinion,so what do I know?)
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MISSING LINK?
Ask.com "Animals In Pants"
While searching for a pot-pie recipe, a scientist decides to use Ask.com. A female scientist, who's standing next to him while holding a baby orangutan, is curious about the tools used by the site and he says, "Without tools, we'd just be, well, you know..."
That's when the little orangutan interjects: "animals in pants."
Neither lab researcher is startled by the ape's use of human speech. Therefore, it's my belief that ever since 1983, when an orangutan named Cha-Cha accidentally drank a strange mixture of enzymes and developed an IQ of 285, that same reseach center has been conducting research into rediscovering the proper mix of enzymes for that elixir.
And it appears that finally, after 23 years, they've succeeded in creating a new 'Mr. Smith'.
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BLIPVERTS
Speaking of Ask.com and missing links, they're also running another commercial in which a Sasquatch used the search engine to find romance with a human.
I don't think it's supposed to be Harry of 'Harry And The Hendersons', although he does have access to a human habitat. Perhaps he's just one of Harry's cousins, in town to get laid.....
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NEW @ TOOBWORLD CENTRAL
Being a fan of Robert Culp, my latest bootleg DVD is of his 1957-59 Western, 'Trackdown' in which he portrayed Hoby Gilman, Texas Ranger.
The four episodes on the disc are:
"The Witness"
"The Full Hand"
"The Governor"
"Outlaw's Wife"
I also picked up several books linked to 'Lost'. Chief among these is "The Lost Chronicles", the official companion book. Usually I don't like to pick up these books until a series has run its course, unless the show looks like it won't have the legs to continue having books about it published after cancellation.
There's no danger of that with 'Lost' in my mind, but when I saw that this also contains a DVD of behind-the-scenes footage, I figured I'd pick it up. I know - I don't like looking behind the curtain when it comes to making TV shows. But remember - this show is made in Hawaii. On the beach. Lots of people in skimpy outfits........
I also picked up two of the tie-in novels:
"Signs of Life" by Frank Thompson
"Secret Identity" by Cathy Hapka
I thought my taste for tie-in novels had run its course after so many years of devouring 'Star Trek' books, but I'm so hyped on this show that I figured I might as well give it a shot.
I also have a Big Finish Audio CD of a 'Doctor Who' adventure featuring Colin Baker as the Sixth Incarnation of The Doctor with Nicola Bryant returning as Peri Brown. It's called "Her Final Flight" (referring to the TARDIS and not to Peri, I believe).
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ZONK!
This just happened last night on 'Bones':
While in New Orleans to help Dr. Temperance Brennan find out who was framing her for a voodoo murder, FBI Agent Seely Booth warned her to start acting like a normal woman instead of as Lily Munster.
Booth wasn't referring to Lily as a TV character from 'The Munsters'. He was talking about the actual (undead) woman. At some point in time after the series cancellation, the existence of the Munster family became common knowledge - especially to the FBI. You can't have that many of Eddie's teachers, co-workers, politicians, and petty crooks enter the house at 1313 Mockingbird Lane without word of the fright-fest family getting around.
Probably Agent Booth heard about them from fellow agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully while they were still part of the Bureau.....
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WISH-CRAFT
Finally, Booth, in that same episode of 'Bones', also made a passing comment about tossing the Ring into the molten river ("Blah blah blah").
There's no Zonk! in this, because JRR Tolkien's epic "The Lord Of The Rings" is not part of Toobworld proper. Oh, it exists in the alternate dimension of the Tooniverse, and over in that alternate universe of Mankind's imagination, the Cineverse, as well as in universes based on Broadway and on orchestral adaptions.
Obviously it reigns supreme in the Literary Universe.
I would love to have "The Lord Of The Rings" as part of Earth Prime-Time, but I won't count the many TV specials that were presented as promotions for the movies; that's a cheat.
So here's my Wish-Craft. I hope someday Peter Jackson might turn his attention to two major sections of the epic which he had to excise for time and space: the story of Tom Bombadil and the Scouring of the Shire. Either as separate tales or as part of one great story that could be presented as a two-part, four-hour mini-series.
It'll probably never happen, but that's what the Wish-Craft is all about - the hopeless dreams of a TV fanatic.
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
Hey, I found your article via the Google blog search, by searching on "Robert Culp." I'm a BIG RC fan myself. I and two other fans moderate Culpalicious, a board that is dedicated to the man and his many characters, including Gilman from Trackdown.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to give us a visit and look around, and join if you like what you see. We try to offer a balance of characters, which currently is split pretty evenly between Kelly Robinson and Bill Maxwell, but Hoby fans are always MOST welcomed! We're all discovering the wonderfulness of his early career playing the Texas Ranger (and I've got some great images of trading cards my sis got me for Christmas!)
The link is http://billswoman.proboards74.com/index.cgi (I'm billswoman... I didn't know how their sign-up process worked when I created the board, silly me, or I would've put the board name in there.)
Take care, enjoying browsing your blog!