AS SEEN ON TV: CAPTAIN SMITH OF THE TITANIC

Mark and Michael, sadly encumbered with the task of being friends of mine, went to an event on Wednesday night to celebrate the new Titanic exhibit in Times Square (in the building that once housed the New York Times). So that's reason enough for me to feature an historical figure connected to that doomed ship in the "As Seen On TV" showcase.

CAPTAIN EDWARD JOHN SMITH

AS SEEN IN:
'The Time Tunnel'

AS PLAYED BY:
Michael Rennie

"Rendezvous With Yesterday" was the first episode in the series, and the producers went all out to make the Operation Tick-Tock base of operations look like there was more to the underground facility than would be seen through most of the series.

Captain Smith is listed in the end credits for the episode as "Captain Malcolm Smith" instead of as "Edward John Smith" which was his real name. However, Toobworld Central has made the determination in the past that names listed in the credits but not mentioned in the show itself can be discounted if trumped by either fact or by an onscreen contradiction. (I can't figure out how the continuity team on this production could have made such a glaring error.) It wasn't the only discrepancy in the episode to separate Toobworld from the real world. According to records, the entire complement of passengers and crew totalled 2,228. But for 'The Time Tunnel', there was a manifest listing 2,300. That means Toobworld can have plenty of elbow room for another 72 fictional characters to be on board the ship. Among them would be Miss Althea Hall - played by Susan Hampshire - and three senior officers who didn't exist in the real world: Mr. Grainger, Mr. Williams, and Mr. Thomas.

I'd like to think Mr. Grainger was the father to Ernest Grainger of 'Are You Being Served?" And as that Mr. Grainger was probably as old as the actor who played him (Arthur Brough was born in 1905.), then the ship's officer didn't need to survive in order to bring about that theory of "relateeveety"......

Earlier this year Toobworld Central featured the captains of the Lusitania and the Mary Celeste as they were portrayed on television. The captain of the Titanic completes the trifecta...... BCnU!