Thursday, September 27, 2007

SIMPLY DARLING

'Dirty, Sexy Money' premiered tonight on ABC. I'm too lazy to get off my Jabba the Hut butt to go into the other room and see if I "divvered" it or not, but I had already seen the pilot at the Paley Center about a month ago on their ABC Preview Party night. Short analysis - I liked it, I may come back to it, but it's not a must-see.

But then, you don't come to visit Toobworld for reviews.......

As often noted here in the past, tele-genetics are strong in Toobworld. Genetic combinations repeat far more often in the TV Universe than they do in the "Trueniverse". That's why 'Columbo' kept running into so many people who looked like an actor named Vito Scotti.

And they can repeat down through countless generations.

But they don't always have to be an exact match, just close enough so that we can recognize that there must be some kind of family tie.

And having the same family name certainly helps in that argument.

There is a clan of music-loving, moonshine-swilling backwoods folk in the hills surrounding Mayberry, North Carolina, who go by the name of Darling. Back in the 1960s, Briscoe Darling was the patriarch of the clan and for alls I know, he may yet be. (Breaking out of the moment for a moment, the actor who played him - Denver Pyle - has passed away.)

At some point back in the late 1800s, it's my contention that someone in the Darling clan decided to head north to seek his fortune in the big city. (That would be, of course, New York City, not Big Town of 'Captain Nice'.) Down through the ensuing generations, the two branches of the Darling family lost contact with each other, and more than likely neither side would have felt any inclination to re-establish the family bond as they had become so different from each other.

The New York Darlings gained their fortune long ago and probably found a way to hold onto it through the Crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression. By 2007, the Darling wealth was looked upon as "old money", with Patrick "Tripp" Darling III held up as the patriarch of the family.

Meanwhile, the Darlings of North Carolina continued with their simpler lives and were probably the richer for it in comparison to their northern kinfolk.

However, there appears to have been a hiccup in the genetic mix-n-match lottery; so that near-perfect facsimile of some common Darling ancestor was reborn to both branches of the families. Take a look at the two patriarchs, Tripp and Briscoe Darling:
Not exact matches, but just enough of a resemblance to suggest that they shared the same branch in the family tree once upon a time.......

The family name of "Darling" looks to be quite popular this season. We've also met Chuck Darling, the Pittsburgh anchorman at WURG Channel 9. I'm thinking that at best he may be a second cousin to the New York Darlings - close enough to perhaps trade on the family name but without the fortune, and yet distant enough so that he never interacts with those members of the family.

Also - unless there were significant changes to the 'Pushing Daisies' pilot after I saw it at that ABC Preview Party - there are these two weird sisters named Vivian and Lily Darling. They used to have a synchronized swimming act known as the Darling Mermaid Darlings, until Lily lost an eye in a tragic cat litter accident.

I'm not sure where Couer de Couer - the town in which they live - is located, but I think the Darling sisters would be more closely related to the Darlings from the North Carolina hills.

Isn't that all just Darling?

BCnU!
Toby OB

No comments: