CROSSOVER OF THE WEEK!

First off, my thanks to KRI1701, Ken to the Iddiot Faithful, for alerting me to this week's crossover. I saw the episode, but never made the connection.

So if you've seen a link between TV shows, let me know about it like Ken did. There's always a chance I may not have seen it, noticed it, or understood its significance.

And now, on with the shows!

'BONES'
&
'KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL'

The link happened before the opening credits even ra - Dr. Temperance 'Bones' Brennan went out on a blind date and was two doors down from the meeting place - the restaurant named "Nolita".

'Kitchen Confidential' took place in the restaurant Nolita, but that one was located in New York City. The one in 'Bones' was to be found in Washington, D.C., so even if we did make it inside the restaurant, we were unlikely to see Jack Bourdain or Seth Richman or any of the other characters from the short-lived sitcom.

But we'll never know because somebody took a few shots at Dr. Brennan, and that type of activity tends to put a damper on blind dates.

I never saw 'Kitchen Confidential'. I got hooked right away on 'How I Met Your Mother' and there was no way I was going to miss an episode of that to check out anything else. I was planning to see it eventually, even if a fresh episode of 'HIMYM' was airing opposite it.

And that's because my friend Shirley Jordan, my twin of spirit, was supposed to be in an episode ("Teddy Takes Off"). But FOX pulled the show after only four episodes and that particular episode never aired.

The fact that the Nolita of 'Kitchen Confidential' is located in Manhattan, and the one in 'Bones' is in Washington does not detract from the crossover. Like the Palm or Morton's of Chicago, there could be restaurants of the same name, owned by the same company, in major cities around the country. (Calling them chains or franchises seems a little crass when discussing toney dining establishments.)

So the Nolita of Washington and the Nolita of NYC probably belong to the same company, and thus the crossover is assured, and not just an in-joke Extra (as David Bianculli calls them).

Now if ony we can get Detective John Munch onto 'Bones', we'd be all set to get both shows officially keyed into Toobworld.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

WHO'S LEFT OUT

Poor Colin Baker just can't catch a break when it comes to 'Doctor Who'.

To publicize the arrival of the latest incarnation of the Doctor to the American airwaves ('Doctor Who', starring Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel this past Friday night.), TV Guide published a small article on the show in last week's issue. Along the bottom of the page ran boxed pictures of Eccleston with Doctors One through Seven... minus Baker as the Sixth.

Following Eccleston are William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Peter Davidson, and Sylvester McCoy, with Tom Baker as Number Four in a full body shot doffing his hat as the centerpiece. But there is space there at his feet where one more box could have been squeezed in, and that's what they should have done to make room for Colin Baker.

I can understand the omission of Paul McGann, who played the Eighth Doctor; it was a one-shot TV movie made in America with a lot of liberties taken with the material. There are those who would rather ignore it altogether and the guy who did the TV Guide layout for that article may be among them. (Personally, I count it as Toobworld canon; I have to - Sylvester McCoy was involved to mark the regeneration transition from his incarnation to McGann's.)

I've caught a few of Colin Baker's stories in my marathon attempt to catch up on everything that still exists of the episodes, and I can't understand the furor against his portrayal when his tenure first aired. If anything, my animosity would have been reserved for the writers and the wardrobe department. Baker did a fantastic job with what he had to work with, and considering the outside pressures he was under, I admire him for seeing his term as the Doctor, shortened as it turned out to be, to the end.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby