THE LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES: JOEY RAMONE

Even years after he's been dead, Joey Ramone's televersion can still make his presence felt in Toobworld. Eric Murphy, manager for his friend Vince Chase, met old-school movie producer Bob Ryan to talk about future projects with the actor. It turned out that Ryan not only knew the founder of the punk rock movement, but he had a script based on the life of Joey Ramone called "I Wanna Be Sedated". (Personally, I'd name a movie about Joey Ramone "Gabba Gabba Hey!", but that's me.)

Now this script should be based on the televersion of Joey's life which differs somewhat from that of the Joey Ramone to be found in the Trueniverse.

For instance - near the end of, the end of the century, it appears that Joey was fed up with the other Ramones and decided to strike out on his own, or at least find some other band to join.

This quest led him to Cleveland, Ohio, where he auditioned for the chance to jam with the Horndogs, Drew Carey's garage band. For some odd reason, a lot of big names from Roy Clark to Lisa Loeb and Johnny Laing auditioned as well, but none of them fit Drew's exacting requirements. (But at least he got Johnny Laing to mow his lawn!)

Joey Ramone finally reconciled with DeeDee and the other Ramones in time to play a concert at a fair in Staten Island which was attened by Sean Finnerty and his family. (Son Jimmy should have been at home working on a school project.)

This happened in Toobworld at the same time the Real Joey was at home sick and dying.

But this script that Bob Ryan has won't cover the event that should be considered Joey's biggest splash in the TV Universe. That's because it took place in the parallel universe known as "The Tooniverse", in a small American town known as Springfield.

Waylon Smithers hired the Ramones to play Mr. Burns' birthday party, but once he heard them play, Burns ordered Smithers to have them killed, mistaking them for the Rolling Stones.

Further elaboration on their history in the Tooniverse is missing, but it's possible that scenario played out so that Joey at least was killed off on orders from Mr. Burns!

Anyway, back on Earth Prime-Time, it looks like the life of Joey Ramone will get the big-screen treatment in Toobworld with Vince Chase playing Joey. And whether or not these little details ever make it into the movie or not, we'll never know. At best we'll only see a snippet or two from the movie once it's made, in much the same way as happened for 'Queens Boulevard' or 'Aquaman'. (I don't remember ever seeing any scenes from 'Head On', Vince's second film. For that matter, I don't even know what the name of his first movie must have been.)

'Entourage'
'The Drew Carey Show'
'Grounded For Life'
'The Simpsons'

Gabba Gabba Hey!
Tele-Toby

Daniel Desario:
"I wrote out some Ramones songs."
Nick Andopolis:
"The Ramones? They only use, like, three chords!"
'Freaks And Geeks'

UPDATE!

As of this week's episode of 'Entourage', Vincent Chase is no longer attached to the Ramones project. Bob Ryan shopped it to a friend of his at Warner Bros. who hates Vince. Whether or not the situation changes again, stay tuned!

Toby