A THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY

As I mentioned last week, I've picked up the boxed set for the best of Season One of 'Checkmate' (as well as the one for Season Two). So last night I watched the debut episode, "Death Runs Wild" which guest-starred Anne Baxter (in full-on Nora Chandler histrionics).

Her character, Mrs. Kipp, wanted only the head of the agency, Don Corey, to come out to her ranch to help her with the death threats which she was receiving. But Corey was too busy with another case that demanded his attention and so he sent his two partners, Jed Sills and Professor Carl Hiatt.

All we know about that other case is that it was referred to as "the Burlingame case". (The spelling could also be "Burlingham".)

So why can't we assume that this never-seen character of "Burlingame" could be connected by family ties to Z.B. Burlingame, who appeared in "The Class of 1980" episode of 'Midnight Caller'? To bolster the argument, both shows take place in San Francisco. (In two different sites, her last name is spelled "Burlingame" in one, "Burlingham" in the other.)

The actress who played Z.B. was born in 1960, the same year 'Checkmate' debuted. If Z.B. is the same age as Amy Resnick (an automatic assumption at Toobworld Central), perhaps Checkmate Inc. was helping her father in some way? Perhaps by protecting his pregnant wife?

I'm the first to admit it's trivial. But that's what builds the TV Universe!

Toobworld: an epic undertaking of trivial proportions!

As it happens, I don't think Z.B. survived past her 30th birthday, if the plot summary for "The Class Of 1980" is any indication.....

A very pregnant Devon hosts a fundraiser with Jack as the object of the bachelor auction. Her college classmates attend; however, one by one, they fall victim to a murderer. Jack, Zymak and Deacon all work the angles of this case, with the evidence pointing firmly at Jack's new girlfriend.

Or it could be that it wasn't Jack's girlfriend after all, but somebody else - maybe even Z.B.! If so, there's a crime that Checkmate Inc. wasn't able to prevent thirty years earlier.......

BCnU!
Toby OB