Thursday, February 8, 2007

THE LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES: ANNA NICOLE SMITH

Some of you may have noticed that I have not been keeping up with the Hat Squad tributes since before the holidays. I've still been keeping track of those who have passed away and brought us so many interesting characters to populate Toobworld; but my heart's never been into reporting such stories.

I promise that one day I'll post all those tributes which I have idling in the Toobworld back rooms.....

But I did want to take a moment to mention the passing of Anna Nicole Smith today at the age of 39. I can't say it was a surprise, not when she always looked so out of it even at the best of times. And in the past few months, with the death of her son right after she gave birth to her daughter, and with a stressful lawsuit regarding her baby's paternity weighing down on her, I can believe that her heart simply gave out from carrying such a burden. (Although pending the autopsy reports, I'm also ready to believe it could have been due to any number of reasons.)

If there's anybody I'm truly sad for in all of this, it's the baby, Danni Lynn.

Several times today, in televised news reports and in several blog posts, I've seen/heard the term "train wreck television" used in describing her career. And that's the best description I could have come up with for the kind of genre her reality show fell under.

When it first premiered on TV, her reality show was somewhat unique in letting us see Anna Nicole, warts and all, exposing her to the ridicule of the viewers as well as from various comedy shows. And yet, she was able to walk away from it with something of a boost to her career, which had been kind of flagging by that point.

So if I was to be considering her for entry into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame, this was one League of Themselves reality appearance that I think provided her with one of her three qualifications.

The other two examples are fairly easy to find. Anna Nicole appeared in the first episode of 'The Naked Truth' ("Wilde Again") in 1995, when Nora Wilde slipped into the fertility clinic to find out whether or not Anna Nicole was pregnant.

Ten years later, Anna Nicole got tangled up in the lives of Robert and Neesee in "Kiss, Kiss, Pass", an episode of 'All Of Us'. I'm not sure how she was involved, but here's the basic rundown of that episode's plot (courtesy of TV.com):

"Jumping back into the dating scene, Robert meets a great woman, who is understanding of his current living arrangements, but is disappointed when he finds out she once dated Dirk.

Meanwhile, Robert and Neesee teach Bobby, Jr. about the tooth fairy."

[From TV.com]

I could see her getting mixed up in either one of those scenarios for that episode....

There'll be no way to shield her daughter from the truth about her mother - there's too much video proof out there on the internet. But I hope she'll find her own strength as she gets older, and I hope that many of these people now vying for control of her life will be doing so with ONLY her best interests at heart.

Shyeah, right....

BCnU....
Tele-Toby

1 comment:

Brent McKee said...

Strictly speaking her Naked Truth appearance wasn't about her possibly being pregnant. The show had that as the original plotline but shortly before the show went to air Howard Morris (the octogenarian billionaire husband) died so the plot had to be changed to the possibility of some sort of infection.