Anne Gregg, one of the first TV personalities from Northern Ireland to make it big on national television, has died. Anne lost a battle against cancer on September 06 2006; she was 66.
Anne was a presenter on UTV's local news magazine programme 'Roundabout'; she was also an announcer at the station. She left Ulster Television to join Anglia TV's 'About Anglia' in 1962, before moving to the BBC in London where she was an in-vision announcer from 1963 until 1964.
She was well known for her work on the 'Holiday' programme from 1980 until 1991. She was also a BBC Radio 4 announcer in 1982.
She returned to Northern Ireland in 1995 as part of the programme 'Places Apart', which she presented.
Gloria Hunniford worked with Anne at Ulster Television and said she had fond memories. "I used to love it when I heard her doing reports about Northern Ireland and speaking so happily of it," she said. "I think she was very proud of her roots."
She took part in 'Going, Going, Gone', an antiques quiz show that resembled America's 'To Tell The Truth'. Three celebs describe the item and give their price for it; two of them would be lying, one would be telling the truth about the object and the price it went for. The players had to decide who was telling the truth. Once decided, there would be recorded coverage of the auction where it was learned what it actually went for. If they were correct they'd win points.
Perhaps due to her connection to 'Holiday', Anne Gregg wrote various travel pieces for magazines, special interest publications, and online sites.
Here are examples from two of her pieces.
On traveling to France by train:
"For me, being able to take the train to France is a revelation. So smooth is Eurostar's exit from Waterloo and zoom under the Channel that there is hardly any sensation of travelling at all. One moment it's the oasthouses of Kent, the next the green swathes of Pas-de-Calais.
You stretch, walk about, buy a coffee, then settle back in comfort to sightsee. Lines of poplars, crops and copses, the spire of a village church, a turreted chateau on a distant hill - La Belle France is unrolling past the window at 186mph without so much as a clickety-clack. You arrive in Paris or Lille, relaxed and ready for anything."
On the open market of Columbia Road:
"Half-seven on a Sunday morning and I'm up, dressed and waiting for my friend's buzz at the doorbell of my Pimlico flat. "Why am I doing this?" I ask myself, looking back longingly at my bed as I shove bad hair under a baseball cap. The answer is Columbia Road - the best plant and flower market in London, and unless you get there soon after 8.00am you risk missing the bargains.
All I want are pots of herbs and fresh flowers, but the lure of this street goes beyond its greenery. Columbia Road, Bethnal Green, is 'Eastenders' in bloom. I go as much for the camaraderie as the camellias, as much for the doughnuts and bagels as for the herbaceous plants ("Three-fifty each, love, two for six quid!")."
I think you can pick out why I chose that second selection.....
BCnU......
Tele-Toby
Thursday, September 7, 2006
Wednesday, September 6, 2006
AUTISTIC DIFFERENCES
In the news....
Men aged over 40 are much more likely to have children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) than those under 30 according to a new report.
Mutation of sperm is thought to be responsible for a six-fold difference in risk even after other factors are taken into account, American scientists said.
Writing in the Archives of General Psychiatry, the Mount Sinai school of medicine researchers believe that the age factor may be due to genetic mechanisms.
Spontaneous mutations in sperm-producing cells or alterations in genetic "imprinting", which affects gene expression, were singled out for this.
Greg Easterbrook of Slate adds this:
But because the autism surge began around the year 1980, researchers and parents of afflicted children continue to ask what kind of exposure could have begun at that time that might account for the surge.
The answer almost certainly isn't mercury compounds in childhood vaccines. What about pollutants, medicines, or vaccine chemicals other than mercury? Or radiation? Or how about this suspect—missing from the usual list of autism malefactors but to which childhood exposure increased significantly in Western countries in about 1980—namely, television.
The idea is wholly speculative. No scientist has shown a link between autism and television, but so far as I could determine no scientist is working on this question, either—and maybe someone should be.
Beginning in about 1980, TV watching in early childhood began to rise, coincident with the proliferation of affordable VCRs and cable channels offering nonstop cartoons and kids' shows. The child's brain is self-organizing in the first few years of life, and visual stimuli have much to do with how it organizes.
Old guys and TV? Oh well.....
There were enough Tommys in my family anyway. I guess I didn't need to contribute a Tommy Westphall.....
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
Men aged over 40 are much more likely to have children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) than those under 30 according to a new report.
Mutation of sperm is thought to be responsible for a six-fold difference in risk even after other factors are taken into account, American scientists said.
Writing in the Archives of General Psychiatry, the Mount Sinai school of medicine researchers believe that the age factor may be due to genetic mechanisms.
Spontaneous mutations in sperm-producing cells or alterations in genetic "imprinting", which affects gene expression, were singled out for this.
Greg Easterbrook of Slate adds this:
But because the autism surge began around the year 1980, researchers and parents of afflicted children continue to ask what kind of exposure could have begun at that time that might account for the surge.
The answer almost certainly isn't mercury compounds in childhood vaccines. What about pollutants, medicines, or vaccine chemicals other than mercury? Or radiation? Or how about this suspect—missing from the usual list of autism malefactors but to which childhood exposure increased significantly in Western countries in about 1980—namely, television.
The idea is wholly speculative. No scientist has shown a link between autism and television, but so far as I could determine no scientist is working on this question, either—and maybe someone should be.
Beginning in about 1980, TV watching in early childhood began to rise, coincident with the proliferation of affordable VCRs and cable channels offering nonstop cartoons and kids' shows. The child's brain is self-organizing in the first few years of life, and visual stimuli have much to do with how it organizes.
Old guys and TV? Oh well.....
There were enough Tommys in my family anyway. I guess I didn't need to contribute a Tommy Westphall.....
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
Tuesday, September 5, 2006
NUMB3R NINE, NUMB3R NINE, NUMB3R NINE....
When bank teller Pete Waddell took over the bank in Milford, Vt., he was asked several times "Why do you need nine hostages?"
Maybe because he was a Tolkien enthusiast?
I'm wondering if it could have been a case of corporate synergy....
'Three Moons Over Milford' is broadcast on the ABC Family network.
Its parent network, ABC, has one of the new series with the best buzz debuting on October 4th in the sweet spot following 'Lost'. It's a mystery about a group of strangers who are held hostage in a bank for over fifty hours. Over the course of the series we'll slowly learn who these people are and what happened during that ordeal in flashbacks.
The name of the series? 'The Nine'.
Could it be that the repeated references to nine hostages in a bank have been deliberate, in order to instill some kind of subconscious check mark about the upcoming series?
I wouldn't put it past the suits.
Of course, the two shows take place in different TV dimensions, and it has nothing to do with them being on separate networks. I expect 'The Nine' to take its place in the main Toobworld, unless (like 'Prison Break') it ends up mired in some kind of presidential conspiracy.
But 'Three Moons Over Milford' has to be in its own alternate dimension because of the Moon having been splintered.
You know, if 'The Dead Zone' does end soon, maybe we can say that 'Three Moons Over Milford' takes place in its near future.....
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
(I am not a numb3r. I am a free man!)
Maybe because he was a Tolkien enthusiast?
I'm wondering if it could have been a case of corporate synergy....
'Three Moons Over Milford' is broadcast on the ABC Family network.
Its parent network, ABC, has one of the new series with the best buzz debuting on October 4th in the sweet spot following 'Lost'. It's a mystery about a group of strangers who are held hostage in a bank for over fifty hours. Over the course of the series we'll slowly learn who these people are and what happened during that ordeal in flashbacks.
The name of the series? 'The Nine'.
Could it be that the repeated references to nine hostages in a bank have been deliberate, in order to instill some kind of subconscious check mark about the upcoming series?
I wouldn't put it past the suits.
Of course, the two shows take place in different TV dimensions, and it has nothing to do with them being on separate networks. I expect 'The Nine' to take its place in the main Toobworld, unless (like 'Prison Break') it ends up mired in some kind of presidential conspiracy.
But 'Three Moons Over Milford' has to be in its own alternate dimension because of the Moon having been splintered.
You know, if 'The Dead Zone' does end soon, maybe we can say that 'Three Moons Over Milford' takes place in its near future.....
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
(I am not a numb3r. I am a free man!)
Monday, September 4, 2006
DURNING POINT REVISED
Back at the end of June, I wrote the following in an essay called "Durning Point" (about the four "brothers" played by Charles Durning in various TV series):
John Gavin, Sr. wasn't known for remaining true to his marriage vows, a trait which his son also picked up. Tommy Gavin hasn't crossed paths with him yet in NYC, but he has an identical half-brother named Mike McNeil, who - like his biological father - is a detective in the NYPD. ('The Job')
I made a couple of errors - Durning's character's name is Mike Gavin. It could be that if Mrs. McNeil had an affair with Gavin and gave birth to his child, she might have insisted on naming the baby boy after him with her husband never the wiser.
Secondly, I should have pointed out my theory as to who Mike McNeil's (legally acknowledged) father was - Frank McNeil of the NYPD, a detective who worked with Lt. Theo 'Kojak' as a partner before eventually becoming his superior as the Captain at the 13th Precinct.
This is the way I should have written that paragraph (and for the Toobworld collection, it has been revised):
Mike Gavin wasn't known for remaining true to his marriage vows, a trait which his son also picked up. Tommy Gavin hasn't crossed paths with him yet in NYC, but he has an identical half-brother named Mike McNeil, who - like his half-brothers Johnny and Timo and Frank McNeil, the father who raised him - is a detective in the NYPD. ('The Job', 'Kojak')
So Mike McNeil would have felt like it was a case of "like father, like son" when it came to his choice of profession. But when it came to his personal life, blood tells.....
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
John Gavin, Sr. wasn't known for remaining true to his marriage vows, a trait which his son also picked up. Tommy Gavin hasn't crossed paths with him yet in NYC, but he has an identical half-brother named Mike McNeil, who - like his biological father - is a detective in the NYPD. ('The Job')
I made a couple of errors - Durning's character's name is Mike Gavin. It could be that if Mrs. McNeil had an affair with Gavin and gave birth to his child, she might have insisted on naming the baby boy after him with her husband never the wiser.
Secondly, I should have pointed out my theory as to who Mike McNeil's (legally acknowledged) father was - Frank McNeil of the NYPD, a detective who worked with Lt. Theo 'Kojak' as a partner before eventually becoming his superior as the Captain at the 13th Precinct.
This is the way I should have written that paragraph (and for the Toobworld collection, it has been revised):
Mike Gavin wasn't known for remaining true to his marriage vows, a trait which his son also picked up. Tommy Gavin hasn't crossed paths with him yet in NYC, but he has an identical half-brother named Mike McNeil, who - like his half-brothers Johnny and Timo and Frank McNeil, the father who raised him - is a detective in the NYPD. ('The Job', 'Kojak')
So Mike McNeil would have felt like it was a case of "like father, like son" when it came to his choice of profession. But when it came to his personal life, blood tells.....
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
THE HAT SQUAD: STEVE IRWIN, CROCODILE HUNTER
From the website for "The Crocodile Hunter":
At 11am today, the 4th September 2006, Steve Irwin was fatally wounded by a stingray barb to his heart whilst filming a sequence on Batt Reef off Port Douglas for his daughter’s new TV series.
Emergency services were called from Cairns Rescue Base and met Croc One, Steve’s rescue vessel at Low Isle on the Great Barrier Reef.
The Croc One crew performed constant CPR during the thirty minute dash to Low Isle, but the medical staff pronounced Steve dead at approx. 12 noon. His producer and closest friend, John Stainton said on Croc One today,
“The world has lost a great wildlife icon, a passionate conservationist and one of the proudest Dads on the planet. He died doing what he loves best and left this world in a happy and peaceful state of mind. Crocs Rule!”
Aside from the fact that he was known as the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin will forever be known for the way he died, and for a stupid stunt in which he carried his baby son too close to hungry crocodiles while feeding them chunks of meat.
I didn't know much about the man beyond the basics, having never seen him in action. I've heard the impersonation of him in an Accuweather.com radio commercial more often than I've ever seen Irwin. So I went to TV Acres (link to the left), the best site for information about everything in the TV Universe, to learn more:
Risk-taking Australian wildlife expert seen on the syndicated nature series CROCODILE HUNTER (1996), THE TEN DEADLIEST SNAKES IN THE WORLD (1998) and CROC FILES a.k.a. "The Crocodile Hunter's Croc Files" (1999).
Born February 22nd, 1962 in Victoria's Dandenong Ranges, Queensland, Australia, Steve Irwin spends his life rescuing and relocating endangered animals. He loves to jump on top of them and wrestle them into submission with the aide of ropes and a good grip.
Steve got his inspiration for working with animals as a child at the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park at Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast (once owned by his parents Lyn Irwin, a nurse and wildlife rehabilitator and Bob Irwin, a plumber turned herpetologist). Steve later expanded his parent's property and renamed it The Australia Zoo which has become a thriving international tourist attraction and "the home of the Crocodile Hunter."
A herpetologist by trade, Steve likes to wear khaki shorts and boots. When he comes upon snakes or crocodiles, Steve stands frozen into his famous "action crouch" and shouts the catchphrase "Crikey!"
The success of Steve and his wife, Terri (Steve's co-host on the "Crocodile Hunter" TV show) spawned a line of action figures, a Steve Irwin doll that cries, "Danger! Danger! Danger!".
In 2002 Steve and his wife, Terri starred in the theatrical release The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course. Steve Irwin has also appeared in Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001) and its sequel, as well as in wildlife documentaries for cable's Animal Planet, in a Federal Express commercial and as a parody of himself named Irwin on the cartoon series SOUTH PARK (episode No. 31. Prehistoric Ice Man) who says things like, "I'm going to sneak up on that croc and jam my thumb in its butthole!".
Reportedly, everything, that Steve Irwin earns is reinvested into conservation causes.
BCnU.....
Tele-Toby
At 11am today, the 4th September 2006, Steve Irwin was fatally wounded by a stingray barb to his heart whilst filming a sequence on Batt Reef off Port Douglas for his daughter’s new TV series.
Emergency services were called from Cairns Rescue Base and met Croc One, Steve’s rescue vessel at Low Isle on the Great Barrier Reef.
The Croc One crew performed constant CPR during the thirty minute dash to Low Isle, but the medical staff pronounced Steve dead at approx. 12 noon. His producer and closest friend, John Stainton said on Croc One today,
“The world has lost a great wildlife icon, a passionate conservationist and one of the proudest Dads on the planet. He died doing what he loves best and left this world in a happy and peaceful state of mind. Crocs Rule!”
Aside from the fact that he was known as the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin will forever be known for the way he died, and for a stupid stunt in which he carried his baby son too close to hungry crocodiles while feeding them chunks of meat.
I didn't know much about the man beyond the basics, having never seen him in action. I've heard the impersonation of him in an Accuweather.com radio commercial more often than I've ever seen Irwin. So I went to TV Acres (link to the left), the best site for information about everything in the TV Universe, to learn more:
Risk-taking Australian wildlife expert seen on the syndicated nature series CROCODILE HUNTER (1996), THE TEN DEADLIEST SNAKES IN THE WORLD (1998) and CROC FILES a.k.a. "The Crocodile Hunter's Croc Files" (1999).
Born February 22nd, 1962 in Victoria's Dandenong Ranges, Queensland, Australia, Steve Irwin spends his life rescuing and relocating endangered animals. He loves to jump on top of them and wrestle them into submission with the aide of ropes and a good grip.
Steve got his inspiration for working with animals as a child at the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park at Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast (once owned by his parents Lyn Irwin, a nurse and wildlife rehabilitator and Bob Irwin, a plumber turned herpetologist). Steve later expanded his parent's property and renamed it The Australia Zoo which has become a thriving international tourist attraction and "the home of the Crocodile Hunter."
A herpetologist by trade, Steve likes to wear khaki shorts and boots. When he comes upon snakes or crocodiles, Steve stands frozen into his famous "action crouch" and shouts the catchphrase "Crikey!"
The success of Steve and his wife, Terri (Steve's co-host on the "Crocodile Hunter" TV show) spawned a line of action figures, a Steve Irwin doll that cries, "Danger! Danger! Danger!".
In 2002 Steve and his wife, Terri starred in the theatrical release The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course. Steve Irwin has also appeared in Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001) and its sequel, as well as in wildlife documentaries for cable's Animal Planet, in a Federal Express commercial and as a parody of himself named Irwin on the cartoon series SOUTH PARK (episode No. 31. Prehistoric Ice Man) who says things like, "I'm going to sneak up on that croc and jam my thumb in its butthole!".
Reportedly, everything, that Steve Irwin earns is reinvested into conservation causes.
BCnU.....
Tele-Toby
Sunday, September 3, 2006
THE HAT SQUAD: CHARLIE WILLIAMS
Charlie Williams, who found fame poking fun at race issues on the hit 1970s TV show 'The Comedians' in England, has died at the age of 78.
Born in Yorkshire of Jamaican descent, Williams was the first black comedian to make the big time on British TV. He played professional football for Doncaster Rovers before developing the comedy catchphrase "me old flower".
Williams's biographer Stephen Smith told the BBC News website that the comedian was an "innovator" and a "trailblazer".
"He opened the door for black performers to be accepted everywhere," he said.
Williams found his talent for comedy at school, where he said he could either deal with racial prejudice by fighting or making people laugh. He chose the latter, saying: "I never liked soiling my clothes."
He went on to host the 'Golden Shot' game show in the mid-1970s and other black entertainers such as Lenny Henry and Gary Wilmot later cited him as an inspiration.
BCnU....
Tele-Toby
Born in Yorkshire of Jamaican descent, Williams was the first black comedian to make the big time on British TV. He played professional football for Doncaster Rovers before developing the comedy catchphrase "me old flower".
Williams's biographer Stephen Smith told the BBC News website that the comedian was an "innovator" and a "trailblazer".
"He opened the door for black performers to be accepted everywhere," he said.
Williams found his talent for comedy at school, where he said he could either deal with racial prejudice by fighting or making people laugh. He chose the latter, saying: "I never liked soiling my clothes."
He went on to host the 'Golden Shot' game show in the mid-1970s and other black entertainers such as Lenny Henry and Gary Wilmot later cited him as an inspiration.
BCnU....
Tele-Toby
IN THE "ZONE"... AND OUT OF TOOBWORLD
With last Sunday's episode, we say good-bye to 'The Dead Zone'. Not that it was cancelled, although it may be. I don't know; I'm out of the loop.
No, it's aloha for the show when it comes to being a resident of Earth Prime-Time, the main Toobworld. 'The Dead Zone' will now have to take up residence in some alternate TV dimension. That's because the plotline called for the assassination of the Vice President. And it wasn't even Cheney!
Not that I'm advocating that, mind you.....
In the dimension of 'The Dead Zone', the Vice President was Eric Danbury, who was just a month younger than me. And now with his death, Maine Congressman Greg Stillson is in line to be nominated to succeed Danbury... even though he was deep in the conspiracy.
Just as the President of the main TV dimension should be the same as that in the Real World, so should it be for the Vice President. So in Toobworld, that means as of right now, the POTUS is George W. Bush and his Veep is Dick Cheney.
And even though we don't know the name of that President just yet, the fact that Eric Danbury was the VPOTUS pretty much guarantees that it won't be Dubya we find in the Oval Office.
So where does 'The Dead Zone' go? Can it be added to some other, established TV dimension?
Let's do a quick run-down (avoiding sitcom-based dimensions and the one based on TV movies):
'THE WEST WING'
Matt Santos has not yet taken office in the world of 'The West Wing' even though we saw him take the oath of office back in May's series finale. We were viewing the future, and that inauguration will take place in January of 2007. (The constitutional rules of transition run differently there.) And the assassination took place on August 26th of this year.
Even so, Santos indicated that Governor Baker would be his nominee to fill Leo McGarry's position as Vice President.
'COMMANDER IN CHIEF'
Before it was cancelled, 'Commander In Chief' was also in need of a new Vice President, but it looked as though President MacKenzie Allen was going to nominate her Chief of Staff, Jim Gardner.
'PRISON BREAK'
The other female President in a TV show, Caroline Reynolds, is also in need of a new Veep. (I'm beginning to smell a trend here!) She had vacated the position to assume the Presidency after the (suspicious) death of her predecessor.
But as that might become a future plot point in 'Prison Break', even though the conspiracy is on the back burner for now, we'd best dismiss it as an option.
'STARGATE SG-1'
Henry Hayes is the Chief Executive in the 'Stargate' dimension, and unlike with the other shows, the position has been filled for the Vice Presidency. Former senator (and thorn in the side) Robert Kinsey is the second-in-command, where he gained even more influence over the Stargate operations. (Hayes rightfully doesn't trust him because of his connections to the NID.)
The problem with these shows still in production is that at any time the characters of the POTUS and the Veep may come into play, and that includes 'The Dead Zone'. With Stillson in line to become Vice President, it looks like the show is getting ready to finally wrap up the storyline and bring it in line with the outcome of the original novel by Stephen King. In doing so, they'll probably introduce their President, and thus all those other pozzbilities will evaporate.
So more than likely, 'The Dead Zone' will be inhabiting its own dimension of its own making. At least most of those above-mentioned series had other shows to keep them company in their alternate dimensions. 'The West Wing' has 'Mr. Sterling' and 'Smallville'; I've placed 'The Agency' and 'The District' in with 'Prison Break'; and 'Stargate SG-1' has its own spin-off, of course - 'Stargate: Atlantis'. ('Commander In Chief' might have an episode of 'Stephen King's Nightmares & Dreamscapes' in its future.....)
Perhaps we can eventually some shows that could keep 'The Dead Zone' company. Any suggestions? Because I just thought of a few....
Remember those USA Network promos in which Johnny Smith met Adrian 'Monk' and Shawn Spencer of the 'Psych' Detective Agency? (He also met the televersion of some Real-World wrestler.) And 'Monk' went on to meet Sean Farrell of 'The 4400'.
Well, I'm not willing to give up on those shows as being part of the main TV Universe just yet. For now, I'll claim that the promos featured the alternate counterparts of those characters, and that they still exist in Toobworld Prime.
They may not be the characters from the actual shows, but at least Johnny has somebody to keep him company in the 'Zone'.....
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
No, it's aloha for the show when it comes to being a resident of Earth Prime-Time, the main Toobworld. 'The Dead Zone' will now have to take up residence in some alternate TV dimension. That's because the plotline called for the assassination of the Vice President. And it wasn't even Cheney!
Not that I'm advocating that, mind you.....
In the dimension of 'The Dead Zone', the Vice President was Eric Danbury, who was just a month younger than me. And now with his death, Maine Congressman Greg Stillson is in line to be nominated to succeed Danbury... even though he was deep in the conspiracy.
Just as the President of the main TV dimension should be the same as that in the Real World, so should it be for the Vice President. So in Toobworld, that means as of right now, the POTUS is George W. Bush and his Veep is Dick Cheney.
And even though we don't know the name of that President just yet, the fact that Eric Danbury was the VPOTUS pretty much guarantees that it won't be Dubya we find in the Oval Office.
So where does 'The Dead Zone' go? Can it be added to some other, established TV dimension?
Let's do a quick run-down (avoiding sitcom-based dimensions and the one based on TV movies):
'THE WEST WING'
Matt Santos has not yet taken office in the world of 'The West Wing' even though we saw him take the oath of office back in May's series finale. We were viewing the future, and that inauguration will take place in January of 2007. (The constitutional rules of transition run differently there.) And the assassination took place on August 26th of this year.
Even so, Santos indicated that Governor Baker would be his nominee to fill Leo McGarry's position as Vice President.
'COMMANDER IN CHIEF'
Before it was cancelled, 'Commander In Chief' was also in need of a new Vice President, but it looked as though President MacKenzie Allen was going to nominate her Chief of Staff, Jim Gardner.
'PRISON BREAK'
The other female President in a TV show, Caroline Reynolds, is also in need of a new Veep. (I'm beginning to smell a trend here!) She had vacated the position to assume the Presidency after the (suspicious) death of her predecessor.
But as that might become a future plot point in 'Prison Break', even though the conspiracy is on the back burner for now, we'd best dismiss it as an option.
'STARGATE SG-1'
Henry Hayes is the Chief Executive in the 'Stargate' dimension, and unlike with the other shows, the position has been filled for the Vice Presidency. Former senator (and thorn in the side) Robert Kinsey is the second-in-command, where he gained even more influence over the Stargate operations. (Hayes rightfully doesn't trust him because of his connections to the NID.)
The problem with these shows still in production is that at any time the characters of the POTUS and the Veep may come into play, and that includes 'The Dead Zone'. With Stillson in line to become Vice President, it looks like the show is getting ready to finally wrap up the storyline and bring it in line with the outcome of the original novel by Stephen King. In doing so, they'll probably introduce their President, and thus all those other pozzbilities will evaporate.
So more than likely, 'The Dead Zone' will be inhabiting its own dimension of its own making. At least most of those above-mentioned series had other shows to keep them company in their alternate dimensions. 'The West Wing' has 'Mr. Sterling' and 'Smallville'; I've placed 'The Agency' and 'The District' in with 'Prison Break'; and 'Stargate SG-1' has its own spin-off, of course - 'Stargate: Atlantis'. ('Commander In Chief' might have an episode of 'Stephen King's Nightmares & Dreamscapes' in its future.....)
Perhaps we can eventually some shows that could keep 'The Dead Zone' company. Any suggestions? Because I just thought of a few....
Remember those USA Network promos in which Johnny Smith met Adrian 'Monk' and Shawn Spencer of the 'Psych' Detective Agency? (He also met the televersion of some Real-World wrestler.) And 'Monk' went on to meet Sean Farrell of 'The 4400'.
Well, I'm not willing to give up on those shows as being part of the main TV Universe just yet. For now, I'll claim that the promos featured the alternate counterparts of those characters, and that they still exist in Toobworld Prime.
They may not be the characters from the actual shows, but at least Johnny has somebody to keep him company in the 'Zone'.....
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
"RESCUE ME": A FINALE FINAL THOUGHT
I really liked Callie Thorne in 'Homicide: Life On The Street', but if her character of Sheila perished in that beach-house fire, I'm down with that. She was way too psychotic and always threatened to derail the show from its balancing act between humor and drama.
The way she played it, you never know which side she was striving for.
Besides, I think she'd be served much better as an actress if she remained with the show as one of the ghosts in Tommy's mind. And it would be nice to see her interact with the actor playing her dead husband Jimmy Keefe.
And if she was killed off, it would set in motion an idea I mentioned a week ago or so here:
Even if Sheila dies in that fire, Tommy will most certainly survive - who really feels that can possibly be in doubt? And as part of his survivor's guilt, he'll take in Sheila and Jimmy's son Damian as his ward.
Living in the Gavin apartment will keep Damian in close proximity to his second cousin Colleen.... and the twisted family roundelay will pick up with a new generation.
Just sayin' is all.....
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
The way she played it, you never know which side she was striving for.
Besides, I think she'd be served much better as an actress if she remained with the show as one of the ghosts in Tommy's mind. And it would be nice to see her interact with the actor playing her dead husband Jimmy Keefe.
And if she was killed off, it would set in motion an idea I mentioned a week ago or so here:
Even if Sheila dies in that fire, Tommy will most certainly survive - who really feels that can possibly be in doubt? And as part of his survivor's guilt, he'll take in Sheila and Jimmy's son Damian as his ward.
Living in the Gavin apartment will keep Damian in close proximity to his second cousin Colleen.... and the twisted family roundelay will pick up with a new generation.
Just sayin' is all.....
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
Saturday, September 2, 2006
NO "BIG LOVE" FOR "RESCUE ME"
When Tommy Gavin wanted the chance to talk to his ex-wife about getting their stories straight in the season finale of 'Rescue Me', he left his two daughters in the other room under the supervision of Lou. His oldest daughter Colleen interrupted her parents' discussion with complaints about the smell of Lou's feet and the choice of 'Big Love' as a viewing option. Tommy yelled out to Lou that there would be NO 'Big Love', so Lou made the girls watch a documentary about Hitler.
For us at home, 'Big Love' was the latest dramatic series to be found on HBO, about a polygamist in Utah with three wives.
But 'Big Love' and 'Rescue Me' should exist in the same TV dimension. So the 'Big Love' mentioned in 'Rescue Me' can't be the exact same show we watch here in the Trueniverse.
It could be a porno title, or even a game show. But it could also be a real-life movie from 2001 which starred Sam Rockwell and Mary McCormack. And whether or not it's any good, Tommy apparently hates it enough to deny his daughters from seeing it.
Later in the same episode, while having dinner with Sheila on the porch of her new beachfront home, Tommy agreed to come inside and watch 'Meerkat Manor' with her.
'Meerkat Manor' is a docu-drama series on the Animal Planet that presents footage about the lives of meerkats in such a way as to create an actual storyline - with names and personalities given to each of the little Timons.
I don't see this as any type of Zonk since it's the kind of documentary show that could exist in both the real world and Toobworld and not cause any kind of dimensional disturbance.
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
For us at home, 'Big Love' was the latest dramatic series to be found on HBO, about a polygamist in Utah with three wives.
But 'Big Love' and 'Rescue Me' should exist in the same TV dimension. So the 'Big Love' mentioned in 'Rescue Me' can't be the exact same show we watch here in the Trueniverse.
It could be a porno title, or even a game show. But it could also be a real-life movie from 2001 which starred Sam Rockwell and Mary McCormack. And whether or not it's any good, Tommy apparently hates it enough to deny his daughters from seeing it.
Later in the same episode, while having dinner with Sheila on the porch of her new beachfront home, Tommy agreed to come inside and watch 'Meerkat Manor' with her.
'Meerkat Manor' is a docu-drama series on the Animal Planet that presents footage about the lives of meerkats in such a way as to create an actual storyline - with names and personalities given to each of the little Timons.
I don't see this as any type of Zonk since it's the kind of documentary show that could exist in both the real world and Toobworld and not cause any kind of dimensional disturbance.
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
SAINT MAYBE
In the season finale of 'Kyle XY', Amanda Bloom (the girl next door and Kyle's secret crush) used her faith to help Kyle sort out his inner conflicts once his "real" parents came to claim him.
She told him about how her religion (Roman Catholicism) has a patron saint for just about everything and that Kyle should seek out a saint of his own for his unique situation. Among the examples she listed for what's "protected" by a patron saint, she listed cab-drivers, stomach-aches, and geese.
There are actually two patron saints for geese - Gall, and Martin of Tours. (Those are two more than my uncle and my brother would like, as Canadian geese really foul up the water and the front lawns of our cottages up at "The Lake" in Connecticut. Geese don't deserve patronage in their opinion.)
There are quite a handful of patron saints in connection to stomach-aches, or in a more general sense, stomach illnesses:
Fiacre
Emerentiana
Eramus
Brice
Timothy
Wolfgang
Charles Borremeo
Amanda may have been pulling these categories out of thin air as just guesses that they have patron saints. Her Catholic faith is very strong though, stronger than mine ever was, and maybe she really does know a saint for each item. If so, I'm thinking she would have been thinking of St. Emerentiana when it comes to stomach-ache. She just sounds like someone Amanda might have taken an interest in.
It's the taxi drivers category that most interested me once I began research on this bit of TV trivia. As with the others, there is more than one saint watching out for cabbies; four in all. The most probable one that Amanda had in mind would likely be St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers. Also included in this very select club are St. Frances of Rome and once again, St. Fiacre.
But it was the fourth one that I found most exciting from a Toobworld perspective - St. Eligius!
Here's what I found at a Catholic website:
St. Eligius
He has become the traditional patron of all smiths, metal workers, and craftsmen. His patronage of horses and the people who work with them stems first from his patronage of smiths and craftmen, but also from his having left a horse to a priest at his death. The new bishop liked the horse, and took it from the priest. The horse became sick, but recovered immediately when it was returned to the priest that Eligius had chosen.
There is also a legend of Eligius removing a horse's leg in order to easy shoe it. In some places horses are blessed on his feast day.
Through the years, horse-drawn cabs were replaced by motorized ones, and stables were supplanted by garages and gas stations, but the patronage of the people who do those jobs and work in those places has remained.
Cool beans, huh? Amanda lives out in Seattle and probably has no idea that there is a St. Eligius Hospital back in Boston. (For the record, I don't subscribe to the snowglobe interpretation of the 'St. Elsewhere' finale.) But it's nice to know the saint still carries some influence over a Toobworld character after nearly twenty years......
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
PS:
There is a patron saint for Toobworld and all things Television: St. Claire. I have a small plastic statue of her standing by my VCR.
And when you turn off the lights, she glows!
Now THAT's Catholicism, baby!
She told him about how her religion (Roman Catholicism) has a patron saint for just about everything and that Kyle should seek out a saint of his own for his unique situation. Among the examples she listed for what's "protected" by a patron saint, she listed cab-drivers, stomach-aches, and geese.
There are actually two patron saints for geese - Gall, and Martin of Tours. (Those are two more than my uncle and my brother would like, as Canadian geese really foul up the water and the front lawns of our cottages up at "The Lake" in Connecticut. Geese don't deserve patronage in their opinion.)
There are quite a handful of patron saints in connection to stomach-aches, or in a more general sense, stomach illnesses:
Fiacre
Emerentiana
Eramus
Brice
Timothy
Wolfgang
Charles Borremeo
Amanda may have been pulling these categories out of thin air as just guesses that they have patron saints. Her Catholic faith is very strong though, stronger than mine ever was, and maybe she really does know a saint for each item. If so, I'm thinking she would have been thinking of St. Emerentiana when it comes to stomach-ache. She just sounds like someone Amanda might have taken an interest in.
It's the taxi drivers category that most interested me once I began research on this bit of TV trivia. As with the others, there is more than one saint watching out for cabbies; four in all. The most probable one that Amanda had in mind would likely be St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers. Also included in this very select club are St. Frances of Rome and once again, St. Fiacre.
But it was the fourth one that I found most exciting from a Toobworld perspective - St. Eligius!
Here's what I found at a Catholic website:
St. Eligius
He has become the traditional patron of all smiths, metal workers, and craftsmen. His patronage of horses and the people who work with them stems first from his patronage of smiths and craftmen, but also from his having left a horse to a priest at his death. The new bishop liked the horse, and took it from the priest. The horse became sick, but recovered immediately when it was returned to the priest that Eligius had chosen.
There is also a legend of Eligius removing a horse's leg in order to easy shoe it. In some places horses are blessed on his feast day.
Through the years, horse-drawn cabs were replaced by motorized ones, and stables were supplanted by garages and gas stations, but the patronage of the people who do those jobs and work in those places has remained.
Cool beans, huh? Amanda lives out in Seattle and probably has no idea that there is a St. Eligius Hospital back in Boston. (For the record, I don't subscribe to the snowglobe interpretation of the 'St. Elsewhere' finale.) But it's nice to know the saint still carries some influence over a Toobworld character after nearly twenty years......
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
PS:
There is a patron saint for Toobworld and all things Television: St. Claire. I have a small plastic statue of her standing by my VCR.
And when you turn off the lights, she glows!
Now THAT's Catholicism, baby!
2006 PREMIERE REPORT - "JUSTICE"
For over ten years now (using the OJ Trial as the kickoff), a lot of attention has been given to the role that the media plays in a trial. "A case tried in the media" is a phrase I'm sure we've all heard.
The latest courtroom drama is using this fixation as their angle. 'Justice' will follow the law firm of Trott, Nicholson, Tuller, and Graves as they employ all the tactics at their disposal to sway public opinion in their favor before a jury is picked.
If 'Justice' is to be compared to any other show currently on air, it won't be 'Boston Legal' or some other legal series; it'll be 'House', a medical drama.
Think about it. It's all in the dynamic of the team. The leader, Ron Trott, is a genius in his field with a few personality quirks and individualistic traits. Unlike Dr. House, Trott enjoys being out in the public eye in order to sway and shape the opinion of his client before trial. But when it comes to the actual trial, he takes second chair. (Juries don't seem to like him....)
As for the other members of his team, there's a handsome young guy, a pretty young woman, and a black guy - just like the team on 'House'. Throw in a female antagonist - the hospital administrator for House, the host of 'American Crime' for Trott, - and all you're missing is the Dr. Watson/Wilson confidante and a cane.
It's a shame the show has such a bland title - 'Justice'. Zzzzzzz. And what's to keep the audience from thinking it's ABC's 'InJustice' brought back from the dead? I don't trust audiences. (And I liked 'InJustice' a lot, by the way. I wish somebody would bring it back, especially for Kyle MacLachlan's character of David Swain!)
Too bad Bruckheimer's crew couldn't find a title that evoked the law, the media and the relationship between the two. This generic title suggests nothing except outcomes in favor of their clients on a 'Perry Mason' scale.
'Justice' has a gimmick - each episode will end with a depiction of what really happened. (Earlier this year, 'InJustice' began with a depiction of what the jury believed to have happened.) With the first episode, I was expecting their client to be found guilty. Thirty years ago that would have been a shocker of an ending in TV. But it's been so overdone since then that the option that they did go with in this case was the twist I wasn't expecting. So it worked for me.
The producers apparently promised that some of the TNT&G clients will be guilty and shown to be so in that finale. I'd like to see one of their clients get found guilty and then the finale shows them to have been innocent after all. That'd be a nice twist.
'Justice' is fast-paced and full of style and flash. This doesn't mean that it lacks substance. Victor Garber's performance is what drives this show on such high energy. He's got a good team of actors as his partners, of whom I'm sure we'll learn more about as the series progresses.
For that Wednesday night timeslot, I'll be tuning in again to 'Justice' - at least for the next few weeks until 'Lost' returns on October 4th. I'd like to continue watching 'Justice' as well, (remember, I'm several steps behind the technological advances in life - I just have a VCR without even an A/B switch!), so I hope FOX brings it back after the baseball playoffs in a different timeslot.....
Now, let's get on with a few Toobworld issues from the pilot episode......
Although they didn't actually appear in this episode, Dominick Dunne and Robert Downey Jr. - at least their televersions - were mentioned as being involved in the fictional life of Ron Trott.
Trott planned to offer Dunne one of the defense spaces in the public seating area at the trial even though Dunne hates him (and probably for what he stands for). It was Trott's way of using the writer as a pawn in his attempts to make the public think the defense team had nothing to fear by Dunne's presence at the trial.
As for Downey, Trott claimed that he helped the actor out at one of his re-arrests at the Malibu sub-station for the Police Department. However, Downey was only identified as just "Downey". This gives the legal department an out should the actor ever raise an objection to the inference to his past, even if he really has been in a lot of trouble over the years.
When Ron Trott made an appearance before the reporters camped outside the home of his client, one of the TV stations represented there was KTML. Back in 1998, this L.A.-based TV station had a reporter named John Malone who was at the forefront in the coverage of the hole in the ozone layer that was fixated over the City of Angels. ("The Sky's On Fire")
Malone just happens to look exactly like Danny Tripp, the returning producer/director of NBS's late night comedy show 'Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip'. And over in the TV dimension for 'The West Wing', he also looks exactly like political advisor Josh Lyman.
Speaking of the 'West Wing' dimension, KTML is a TV station located in Smallville, Kansas there.
I'll be working out the kinks to another theory, one of "Relateeveety", in regards to firm partner Tom Nicholson, that's a bit off the wall, but it all depends on whether or not we ever get the chance to meet his parents in this show.
Hopefully we won't. And that way I can link the show to another classic TV legal drama from forty years ago, and one which I've been developing a wide-spanning link to many other TV series that reach back to the beginnings of the 20th Century.
But I'll keep that close to the vest for now. There's no way I can be forced to turn over that information... information.... information in Discovery right now!
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
The latest courtroom drama is using this fixation as their angle. 'Justice' will follow the law firm of Trott, Nicholson, Tuller, and Graves as they employ all the tactics at their disposal to sway public opinion in their favor before a jury is picked.
If 'Justice' is to be compared to any other show currently on air, it won't be 'Boston Legal' or some other legal series; it'll be 'House', a medical drama.
Think about it. It's all in the dynamic of the team. The leader, Ron Trott, is a genius in his field with a few personality quirks and individualistic traits. Unlike Dr. House, Trott enjoys being out in the public eye in order to sway and shape the opinion of his client before trial. But when it comes to the actual trial, he takes second chair. (Juries don't seem to like him....)
As for the other members of his team, there's a handsome young guy, a pretty young woman, and a black guy - just like the team on 'House'. Throw in a female antagonist - the hospital administrator for House, the host of 'American Crime' for Trott, - and all you're missing is the Dr. Watson/Wilson confidante and a cane.
It's a shame the show has such a bland title - 'Justice'. Zzzzzzz. And what's to keep the audience from thinking it's ABC's 'InJustice' brought back from the dead? I don't trust audiences. (And I liked 'InJustice' a lot, by the way. I wish somebody would bring it back, especially for Kyle MacLachlan's character of David Swain!)
Too bad Bruckheimer's crew couldn't find a title that evoked the law, the media and the relationship between the two. This generic title suggests nothing except outcomes in favor of their clients on a 'Perry Mason' scale.
'Justice' has a gimmick - each episode will end with a depiction of what really happened. (Earlier this year, 'InJustice' began with a depiction of what the jury believed to have happened.) With the first episode, I was expecting their client to be found guilty. Thirty years ago that would have been a shocker of an ending in TV. But it's been so overdone since then that the option that they did go with in this case was the twist I wasn't expecting. So it worked for me.
The producers apparently promised that some of the TNT&G clients will be guilty and shown to be so in that finale. I'd like to see one of their clients get found guilty and then the finale shows them to have been innocent after all. That'd be a nice twist.
'Justice' is fast-paced and full of style and flash. This doesn't mean that it lacks substance. Victor Garber's performance is what drives this show on such high energy. He's got a good team of actors as his partners, of whom I'm sure we'll learn more about as the series progresses.
For that Wednesday night timeslot, I'll be tuning in again to 'Justice' - at least for the next few weeks until 'Lost' returns on October 4th. I'd like to continue watching 'Justice' as well, (remember, I'm several steps behind the technological advances in life - I just have a VCR without even an A/B switch!), so I hope FOX brings it back after the baseball playoffs in a different timeslot.....
Now, let's get on with a few Toobworld issues from the pilot episode......
Although they didn't actually appear in this episode, Dominick Dunne and Robert Downey Jr. - at least their televersions - were mentioned as being involved in the fictional life of Ron Trott.
Trott planned to offer Dunne one of the defense spaces in the public seating area at the trial even though Dunne hates him (and probably for what he stands for). It was Trott's way of using the writer as a pawn in his attempts to make the public think the defense team had nothing to fear by Dunne's presence at the trial.
As for Downey, Trott claimed that he helped the actor out at one of his re-arrests at the Malibu sub-station for the Police Department. However, Downey was only identified as just "Downey". This gives the legal department an out should the actor ever raise an objection to the inference to his past, even if he really has been in a lot of trouble over the years.
When Ron Trott made an appearance before the reporters camped outside the home of his client, one of the TV stations represented there was KTML. Back in 1998, this L.A.-based TV station had a reporter named John Malone who was at the forefront in the coverage of the hole in the ozone layer that was fixated over the City of Angels. ("The Sky's On Fire")
Malone just happens to look exactly like Danny Tripp, the returning producer/director of NBS's late night comedy show 'Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip'. And over in the TV dimension for 'The West Wing', he also looks exactly like political advisor Josh Lyman.
Speaking of the 'West Wing' dimension, KTML is a TV station located in Smallville, Kansas there.
I'll be working out the kinks to another theory, one of "Relateeveety", in regards to firm partner Tom Nicholson, that's a bit off the wall, but it all depends on whether or not we ever get the chance to meet his parents in this show.
Hopefully we won't. And that way I can link the show to another classic TV legal drama from forty years ago, and one which I've been developing a wide-spanning link to many other TV series that reach back to the beginnings of the 20th Century.
But I'll keep that close to the vest for now. There's no way I can be forced to turn over that information... information.... information in Discovery right now!
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
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