HURRAH FOR RAABE!

Meinhardt Raabe celebrated his 94th birthday this past week. He's the oldest living member of "The Wizard Of Oz" cast - he played the Munckinland Coroner who certified that the Wicked old Witch at last was dead.

Too often Toobworld Central only mentions people in the business after they've died. It's nice to celebrate an occasion like this, especially when it concerns my favorite movie of all time!

[Thanks to my Iddiot companero Ray Brizzi for this!]

BCnU!

PS:
This is post #4242, which could be considered a 'Lost' number. 'Lost' has made several references to "The Wizard Of Oz"......

AS SEEN ON TV: JOAN COLLINS

Because Aaron Spelling is being inducted into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame, and because my dear friend Michael is such an avid fan of Alice Krige, we have a special tribute today in the "As Seen On TV" showcase.....

JOAN COLLINS

AS SEEN IN:
"Dynasty: The Making Of A Guilty Pleasure"

AS PLAYED BY:
Alice Krige

The Bitch is Back, Baybeee!
BCnU!

TVXOHOF, 09/2009-A: AARON SPELLING

With the month of September, the TV Crossover Hall of Fame usually inducts a real world figure whose work behind the scenes has been instrumental in promoting and/or creating crossovers, and thus to the idea of Toobworld.

This year, because of the Hall's tenth anniversary celebration, we have an induction every week chosen from four different categories: "League Of Themselves", "As Seen On TV", "The Tooniverse", and "Location, Location, Location". But even so, we'll still be able to maintain the tradition of saluting these "creataurs".

For this week, with the theme of "The League Of Themselves", we're paying tribute to the late impresario Aaron Spelling.
Spelling is probably the greatest executive producer TV will ever see. From the 1970's into the 90's, it seemed as though everything that had his name on it was golden - 'Fantasy Island', 'Dynasty', 'Charlie's Angels', 'The Love Boat', 'Beverly Hills 90210', 'Twin Peaks'.... He may not have actually created those shows, but the blessing of his imprimatur guaranteed that they got on the air. Even those shows that didn't succeed ('Clubhouse', for example), they at least got a chance because Spelling's name was attached.

Just take a look at his IMDb.com page and run down that list of shows he produced!
http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0005455/

And as I would expect a smart producer to do, Aaron Spelling made his properties stronger by having them interconnect. The O'Bvious examples are the spin-offs: 'The Colbys' from 'Dynasty', 'Melrose Place' from 'Beverly Hills 90210'. Then there are the crossovers: 'Charlie's Angels' visited 'Vega$' and sailed on 'The Love Boat', which docked at 'Fantasy Island'. And whenever he could, he used his shows to serve as backdoor pilots for other projects. The "Toni's Boys" episode of 'Charlie's Angels, with Barbara Stanwyck as a distaff Charlie with three hunks working for her, is a great example.

Aaron Spelling had a powerful hold over Toobworld; his presence could even be felt from within the reality of the TV Universe. To prove that point, Aaron Spelling will be inducted into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame next week as well!

Deja view, baybee!

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: "FOOTAGE" FROM "THE LITTLE COLONEL"

FILMING THE STAIR DANCE
FROM "THE LITTLE COLONEL":

FEATURING:

BILL ROBINSON
(as played by Hinton Battle)

SHIRLEY TEMPLE
(as played by Ashley Rose Orr)

DAVID BUTLER
(as played by Bruce Shapiro)

GEORGE TEMPLE
(as played by Colin Friels)

GERTRUDE TEMPLE
(as played by Connie Britton)

LIONEL BARRYMORE
(as played by William Gluth)

For today's showcase, we're returning to the TV movie "Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story". (We featured this film once before, back on April 19th, but we incorrectly identified the young actress playing Shirley Temple. We said it was Emily Hart, but it was actually Ashley Rose Orr - who's also seen in this video clip.)

Originally the plan was to be a solo spotlight on Bill Robinson, but I couldn't find a good head shot of Hinton Battle in the role. And it seemed more interesting to make this a video spotlight, especially since so many historical figures are portrayed in the clip.

Youtube also has a comparison video of the original footage from "The Little Colonel" with the recreation of the filming seen in the TV movie. Unfortunately it can't be embedded, but you can see it here.

BCnU!

ANNIVERSARY SCHMALTZ

While I was on vacation, "Inner Toob" reached its fifth anniversary. It was at this point in its life that my old website "The Tubeworld Dynamic" was forced to close down by AOL's change in procedures for blogging. I trust the same fate won't befall me here with Blogger.....

"Inner Toob" celebrates the concept that nearly everything seen on TV constitutes a fantasy universe, in the spirit of "The Incompleat Enchanter" by Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague deCamp. Nearly 4,240 posts ago, I presented my description of what "Toobworld" was all about:

The TV Universe is my version of collecting tin foil: a minor hobby that has been growing larger than I can control!

I like to look for the type of TV trivia that can help me link various TV shows together so that eventually they're all sharing the same universe. It doesn't matter if it's a cop drama or a sitcom or a cartoon or a mini-series or a Western or a space opera or even a commercial; it's my personal delusion that everything we see on TV shares the same alternate universe.

Sure, there are a lot of obvious links - the crossovers and the spinoffs that are actually designed by the producers to help boost ratings.... [But] I look for thematic crossovers as well - certain situations, locations, products, and characters which can bind shows together. As I continue with this blog, I'll elaborate on that topic, as well as post what "crossovers" I've found so far this year, entrants into the Crossover Hall of Fame, and what crossovers I'd like to see.

And as you watch TV, let me know whenever you find a possible crossover that might be of interest!

To mark the fifth anniversary, I'd like to explain the many labels I have for the posts, which I've only been adding since 2007:

ALTERNATEEVEE - "Toobworld" is the colloquial term for Earth Prime-Time, that fantasy universe in which nearly everything from TV happens. But thanks to shows like 'Star Trek' and 'Sliders', there are other TV dimensions - which comes in handy when a show proves too difficult to place in the main Toobworld.

AS SEEN ON TV - This has become a daily feature this year, in which we showcase the portrayals of historical figures on TV.

AGATHA CHRISTIE
REAL WORLD & TOOBWORLD

BIG SCREEN TV - Sometimes a theatrically released film has ties to Toobworld, with regards to sequels, remakes, inspirations for TV shows, or actual crossovers (as was the case with "This is Spinal Tap" and 'The Nanny', for instance.)

AL POWELL
MOVIE UNIVERSE & TV UNIVERSE

BLIPVERTS - TV commercials have just as much right to belong in the TV Universe as the shows they sponsor. And occasionally, they prove to be more entertaining. (The term comes from 'Max Headroom'.)

BLOGMATES - These are my comrades in arms, whose links you'll find listed over there to the left.
BOOK 'EM - As with movies, sometimes there are books that have some connection to TV shows. But also this category deals with the fictional books you can only find in the libraries of - the Twi- er, in Toobworld..... [Title inspired by the oft-used 'Hawaii 5-O' catch-phrase.]

BORN TO RE-RUN - Re-incarnation plays a big role in Toobworld, especially helpful in forging theoretical links between shows.

BY ANY OTHER NAME - Sometimes characters played by the same actor on different shows are one and the same person. My favorite example? Dr. Loveless on 'The Wild, Wild West' was also Mr. Big on 'Get Smart', The Clown on 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea', and Arthur Boyle in "Goodnight, My Love".

CURTIS/NUMBER 12 & NELSON BRENNER
ONE AND THE SAME!

CROSSING ZONE - There's probably at least one TV show that can be linked for every episode of 'The Twilight Zone'. Cataloguing them was an ongoing project in the old website; someday I may take it up again on a regular basis here.

DEEP SIX - Letterman has his Top Ten list; the Waterbury Republican-American has the Morning 5. This is my occasional list of six connected items in a theme.

DOUBLE VISION - For those TV characters played by the same actor but in different series (not always) - and who are not the same person using an alias - this is the general category to "splain" why they look the same - clones, plastic surgery, alien impersonation, masks, quantum leaping, etc.

2 NICK CUTTERS
[ONE'S A CLONE]

2 GILLIGANS
[ONE'S SOME KIND OF EVIL TWIN]

FANFICCER'S FRIEND - I don't usually have the patience anymore to read fan fiction crossovers, and I do feel guilty about the concept since the authors do get carried away with their belief in their "rights". But that doesn't stop me from being an enabler - every so often I'll publish a picture from a movie to suggest a possible crossover for TV characters played by the actors in that movie. Here's a good example:

GAME OF THE NAME - I've always been fascinated with names and this category serves as an umbrella category to explore that fixation. Aliases, origins, even just a celebration of the "music" in a name...... [A play on the series title 'The Name Of The Game'.]

HALL OF FAME - Usually once a month, we induct some TV character into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame. The only requirement is that the character had to appear in three different TV sources - series, commercials, movies, mini-series, even cartoons. For 2009, we're inducting one every week in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Hall of Fame online.

HAT SQUAD - Our tributes - our tips of the hat - to those actors, writers, directors, and others connected to the medium of television who have passed away. [The title was from a short-lived detective series.]

IDD - The Idiot's Delight Digest group is my longest-running association with an online organization. It's a celebration of free-form deejay legend Vin Scelsa, who can still be heard on WFUV and on Sirius. My best description of his talents is that he could start off with a "Ramones Attack" and by the time he's finished with his segue of records he's playing Josephine Baker singing in French. And you understand how he reached that point; it all makes musical sense.

Every so often, the IDD contingent of fans known as "Iddiots" (a word I proudly coined!) gives Toobworld Central a helping hand....

KEEP ON TREKKIN' - As you might expect, this label is for anything related to 'Star Trek'.

LA TRIVIATA - those bits of business that can often serve as the building blocks for the Great Link, the Grand Mosaic, that is Toobworld.

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES - When a real-life personality appears as themselves in a fictional TV show - Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton on 'Here's Lucy', Mayor Bloomberg on 'Law & Order', for example - they are just as fictional as the characters around them. The League of Themselves celebrates their presence in the TV Universe.

LIFE DURING PRIME TIME - A general category, usually dealing with events that occur in the lives of TV characters.

LINKIN' CASE - This covers the arguments made in defense of a link which Toobworld Central deems good enough to be considered official and not just theoretical. [A play on Lincoln Case, from 'Route 66'.]

LINKIN' HAZE - This is the miasma in which we're never really sure if the connection is valid. [A play on Lincoln Hayes, from 'Mod Squad'.]

LINKIN' LOGS - Usually a list of links or some other type of categorization. Probably the only time the file clerks at Toobworld Central get to shine. [A play on "Lincoln Logs", of course.]

LOST IN THOUGHT - As with "Keep On Trekkin'", this is a label for any essays that have to do the TV series 'Lost'. As we await its final season, we're mostly holding off on these theories until the all of the producers' answers are "set in stone".

MAILING TOOB - Letters! We get letters! Well, not many. But we'd love to give you a spotlight if you do have something to say about Toobworld! Please.....?

MISSING LINKS - This is for those theoretical links that nobody else probably ever thought could exist. There's no way they'd ever be official, but hopefully we present a compelling argument for them to be considered as such.

MUSEUM PIECE - For those TV shows I've seen at the Paley Center for Media or the really oldie but goodies I've found (mostly as bootlegs - shhhh!)

MY SO-CALLED LIFE - I know a lot of people use their blogs for revealing their personal life or to rant about the stuff that bugs them. I rarely do that - too many walls! - but occasionally something slips through a crack..... [The name was stolen directly from the TV series.]

NUMBERS RUNNING - All the speculation about the sequence of "The Numbers" on 'Lost' has really been an O'Bsession for me. With this category, I look for them in other TV shows and tele-flicks. Perhaps because Douglas Adams made it so famous, one would expect to find "42" popping up; but it's amazing how many times I keep finding "23"! O'BSERVATIONS - My personal thoughts about various TV topics. As for the spelling, I'm an O'Brien, and this is a form of protest when I see the apostrophe being eliminated from my computerized life vis a vis credit cards, bills, subscriptions, etc. O'Tooles, O'Malleys, O'Rileys, O'Shaughnessys, et al - are ye with me?

ONLINE TV - Over the years, Toobworld has had to expand its parameters to include online content. Currently a good example is 'The Adventures Of Little Monk', which serves as a prequel to the show 'Monk'.

OUTSIDE THE BOX - Every so often something occurs in the real world that doesn't really have a connection to Toobworld or even to television in general, but which attracts my attention and I feel the need to bring it to yours.

OZ-BITS - "The Wizard Of Oz" is my all-time favorite movie, and it has proven to be so influential that it keeps cropping up in references on TV all the time. This is my small way to point to that out.....

PILOT PROGRAM - Not every pilot for new TV shows make it on the air, and thus must be relegated to some sort of Toobworld limbo. But some of them have really intriguing premises and this is where we give them consideration.

REALI-TV - Real-life news and events that find themselves incorporated into the fictional world of Toobworld - the Titanic, 9/11, Viet Nam, the assasinations of Kennedy and Lincoln, the trampling deaths at The Who's Cincinnatti concert... all of them have had fictional characters blended into their reality.

RECASTAWAYS - When a character suddenly looks different because a new actor is playing the role - a common occurrence in soap operas - there has to be some kind of "splainin" within the reality of the TV Universe. Here's where we find 'em.

HANNIBAL HEYES (AKA JOSHUA SMITH)
FROM TWO DIFFERENT TV DIMENSIONS

DARRIN STEPHENS
APPEARANCE ALTERED BY MAGIC

SIGN OF THE CROSSOVER - Usually these are the official crossovers, or at least those which have such incontrovertible proof that they should be considered official.

SKED ALERT - If there's something coming up on TV that I think you should really check out, I'll post a notice for it. But don't ever depend on me to be a substitute TV Guide! (Check out my blogmate TVaholic for that - as always, link to the left!)

SKITLANDIA - Comedy sketches don't belong in Toobworld proper; too many Zonks (see below) are created by them. So Skitlandia is an alternate TV dimension in which they can flourish. Every so often, a Skitlandian crosses over into Earth Prime-Time. For example: the refrigerator repairman played by Dan Aykroyd in an episode of 'The Nanny' originally appeared in a "Nerds" sketch on 'Saturday Night Live'.

SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE - Sometimes I'm just too lazy to write up a post myself. That's when I "quote extensively" from some other source. I give them credit, but I'm usually too lazy to provide links. I guess I'm no better than a plagiarist at times.....

SPIN-OFF CITY - This category deals with sequels, prequels, and spin-offs from other shows. [A play on the sitcom title 'Spin City'.]

SPLAININ TO DO - "Splainin" may be the most used coined TV word to be found in "Inner Toob". These are my explanations for things that occurred in Toobworld, or why certain shows should be connected to each other, or a way to get rid of discrepancies. As you might imagine, it's the one label I use the most! [As most people must know, the term comes from 'I Love Lucy'.]

TELE-FOLKS DIRECTORY - This category is for our examinations into the "lives" of the citizens of Toobworld.

TELE-QUOTES - For those great lines we repeat, usually as headers for an essay.

THEORIES OF RELATEEVEETY - Sort of a "Missing Links" category in which we describe how two TV characters from different shows might be related. This could include re-incarnation, illegitimate offspring, and that old stand-by, "Identical Cousins".

BON CHANCE LOUIE & EDWARD ST. JOHN
FATHER AND SON?

TIDDLYWINKYDINKS - A play on radio legend Bob Steele's old spotlight on those little known facts of no importance. This was a daily feature last year, but it proved to be exhausting. If used at all anymore, it's usually in conjunction with an historical event that has been depicted or mentioned on TV.

TOOBIT AWARDS - The annual celebration of our personal favorites from the past year.

TOOBWORLD CENTRAL - Currently our headquarters can be found here:

TOONIVERSE - A dimension similar to Skitlandia, but in which all of TV cartoons can be found. As is sometimes the case with Skitlandia, characters from the Tooniverse cross over into Earth Prime-Time - Daffy Duck on 'The Drew Carey Show' for example. But they must remain as cartoons; if they appear as actual humans, like 'Batman', for example, then they are just dimensional counterparts.

TV CLASSIQUE - Just a fancy name for great old TV shows....

TV MOVIES - This is actually two categories. Mostly it deals with actual TV movies rather than TV shows or commercials. But it could also refer to those fictional movies that can only be found in Toobworld.

TV ON TV - Similar to TV Movies and Book 'em, this category is mostly about fictional TV series found in real TV series - like 'FYI' on 'Murphy Brown'.

TV TIMELINE - Dealing with historical as well as fictional dates........

TWIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES - Every so often a news story breaks that is either directly associated with television, or which has connotation to the medium. The title is a play on the 'Law & Order' concept, with "Twip" coming from that old fake multi-purpose product found in TV Land interstitials.

WHO'S ON TV - Similar to Crossing Zone, Keep On Trekkin' and Lost In Thought, this category deals with anything to do with 'Doctor Who'.

WIKIPEDIAPHILE - Sure, it's not the most reliable resource for information on any given topic, but it's the most accessible for nearly everything imaginable. So Wikipedia serves as the go-to for just the facts, ma'am, on the real-life background for Toobworld topics.

WISH-CRAFT - Conscripted from Tabitha's attempts to say "Witch-craft" on 'Bewitched', this is the category where we make suggestions and just basically wish for certain things to happen in our favorite shows. It'd be nice if someday some network suit sees our suggestion box and actually utilizes the wish-craft. Shyeah, right!

WORLD TOOB - Stories about TV from around the world. Toobworld isn't just made up of the TV shows from the United States. O'Bviously there are a lot of posts about British TV, but we've also covered shows from Sweden, Israel, India, Iraq, and Mexico. View local, imagine global.

ZONKS - Every so often, a TV show refers to another real TV show as being just a TV show, when they should both be sharing the same world. This discrepancy is called a Zonk. Among the biggest offenders - references to 'The Twilight Zone', 'Star Trek', 'The Brady Bunch', 'Gilligan's Island', and 'The X-Files'. Any show that registers high on the popularity scale will most likely be referenced in shows that thrive on such pop culture nuggets, like 'Gossip Girl', '90210', etc. Toobworld Central does its best to disable these Zonks, but sometimes we just have to throw up our hands in defeat - currently we get bitch-slapped a lot by 'Entourage', just as we used to with 'The Larry Sanders Show'. I'm sure this coming storyline on 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' about the 'Seinfeld' reunion is going to be a Toobworld nightmare. Oy view! (The term comes from 'Let's Make A Deal'.)

If you've found "Inner Toob" to be a time-suck or just too stupid to exist, blame Sean Cleary. My "Little Buddy" inspired me to give this blogging thing a try when he started up his own way back then....

BCnU!

MASTERING THE VIEW-NIVERSE

My friend NYMarkie was clearing out his DVR queue when he got this prompt:

For a moment, he felt like Davros!

BCnU!

DON'T GET MAD, GET DE-ZONKED

Astute viewers of 'Mad Men' have noticed a couple of anachronisms in the first three episodes of the series this season. First there was "The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary" which could be seen behind the desk of Lane Pryce. The three volume set that was shown wasn't published until 1987, and the show is currently in 1963. (It's a good thing Twitter isn't part of the Toobworld concept: "Lane Pryce" tweeted that Marty McFly left it in his safe-keeping.....)

And in the latest episode, "My Old Kentucky Home", the Zildjian crash cymbal used at the garden party didn't come into existence until the mid-1980's.

Zonks like these can be most easily splained away with "Forget it, Jake; it's Toobworld." This isn't the real world, so sometimes the same rules don't apply for the TV universe. To remain in the main Toobworld, they do have to share the same President as the real world - in this case, John F. Kennedy because of the timeline (for another few months, anyway).

But there's no Sterling-Cooper in the real world; none of these characters are real; it wasn't the Schillingers who ran the Utz company; Jimmy Barrett never got his own network TV show in the real world because he doesn't exist. Allowances have to be made, and the dictionary set and the cymbal have to be included as exceptions.

In Toobworld, both of those items did exist back in 1963. No Zonk.

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: GEORGES MELIES

GEORGES MELIES

AS SEEN IN:
'From The Earth To The Moon'

AS PLAYED BY:
Tchéky Karyo This week, "Le Voyage Dans La Lune" celebrated its 107th birthday. It's generally regarded as the oldest science fiction movie. And it was created by Georges Melies.

Georges Méliès (December 8, 1861 – January 21, 1938), full name Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, was a French filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest cinema. He was born in Paris, where his family manufactured shoes.

He was very innovative in the use of special effects. He accidentally discovered the stop trick, or substitution, in 1896, and was one of the first filmmakers to use multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves, and hand-painted color in his films. Because of his ability to seemingly manipulate and transform reality with the cinematography, Méliès is sometimes referred to as the "Cinemagician."

His most famous film is A Trip to the Moon (Le voyage dans la Lune) made in 1902, which includes the celebrated scene in which a spaceship hits the eye of the man in the moon. Also famous is The Impossible Voyage (Le voyage à travers l'impossible) from 1904. Both of these films are about strange voyages, somewhat in the style of Jules Verne. These are considered to be some of the most important early science fiction films, although their approach is closer to fantasy.

In addition, horror cinema can be traced back to Georges Méliès's Le Manoir du diable (1896).

[from Wikipedia]

Another leading character in that last chapter of the mini-series was Jean-Luc Despont, Melies' cameraman. Played by the series producer (and writer of this episode) Tom Hanks, Despont can only be found in Toobworld, so he wouldn't get his own listing in the "As Seen On TV" showcase.
BCnU!

[My thanks to Jordan Hoffman for pointing out this milestone....]

A MISSING LINK QUICKIE

Lillian Foods International was the location for a recent con job on 'Leverage' ("The Top Hat Job"). It could be the source company for many fictional food products found only in Toobworld.....

[Pictured: products from Lillian Foods supplied by Leverage team member Alec Hardison.]

BCnU!

ED REIMERS: A HAT SQUAD-THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY MASH-UP

While I was on vacation, Ed Reimers passed away. He was 96.

Although he was an actor who appeared in such TV shows as 'The Millionaire' and 'Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theatre', it was his work as announcer for which Reimers is best remembered.

He was the narrator for 'Maverick', 'The Crusader', 'M Squad' and 'Do You Trust Your Wife?', but it was his 22 year association with Allstate Insurance that made his voice famous: "You're in good hands with Allstate".

He also had a small role in what could be the most popular episode ever of 'Star Trek' - "The Trouble With Tribbles". As Admiral Fitzpatrick, he also shows up in a classic blooper reel for the show: cupping a tribble in his hand, Admiral Fitzpatrick tells Captain Kirk that he's "in good hands with tribbles". (This clip has no effect on the inner reality of Toobworld.)

I'd like to think that in his own small way, Ed Reimers' portrayal of Admiral Fitzpatrick serves as a theoretical link between 'Star Trek' and another TV series, one from the 1970's.

Couldn't it be that - going back JackLord knows how many generations from the year 2267 - Admiral Fitzpatrick could have been descended from either Sean, Jack, or Max Fitzpatrick of Flint, Michigan? He could even count Maureen Fitzpatrick as his forebear, provided she gave birth to a boy outside of wedlock and gave him her family name.

And if that ancestor was either Sean or Jack, then he might be able to count Kerry Gerardi in his genetic mix as well. She was the girl next door who was sweet on both boys. (And she was played by future Oscar winner Helen Hunt.)

At the very least, it could be argued that the Admiral could trace his lineage back to Mike and Maggie, the parents of 'The Fitzpatricks'.

Just sayin', is all.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: RUFFIAN

Wednesday's child is full of woe....

Still veering away, and yet at the same time hewing closer to the August theme of the Wild West, today's "As Seen On TV" showcase features an equine figure of History:

RUFFIAN

AS SEEN IN:
"Ruffian"

AS PLAYED BY:
Various colts
She isn't the first horse we've had in the spotlight since we started this theme in January; that honor would go to Incitatus from 'I, Claudius' back in May. But the story of Ruffian may be the most compelling about a horse since that of "Seabiscuit". Ruffian was dubbed the "Queen of the Fillies" - ironic then that she was portrayed here by a series of colts. (It was kind of a "Lassie" situation.) That title may not have been hyperbole; not even Death could have amped up her reputation. The TV movie concerned itself with her too short and very tragic life, which ended at Belmont back in 1975. (She is buried there at an infield flagpole, facing the finish line.)

The TV Ruffian is seen here with her trainer, Frank Whiteley (as played by Sam Shephard):
For more about the life and death of Ruffian, visit the Manes & Tails Organization page about her.

And here's a music video using footage from the TV movie:



BCnU.....

REALI-TV, VIENNA STYLE

For those who don't think television has any power over us, consider this recent news story:

Four year old Jakob Strauss of Austria climbed inside a mail box on the street, which then locked him inside. For the next couple of hours Jakob screamed for help, but passersby ignored his cries.

Why?

They thought it was all part of a reality show similar to the classic 'Candid Camera'.....
BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: JACQUELINE SUSANN, TWICE

From Monument Valley to "The Valley Of The Dolls".... To make a complete break from our August theme of TV Westerns, the "As Seen On TV" showcase begins September with a look at Jacqueline Susann. And on top of that, it's "Two For Tuesday"!

JACQUELINE SUSANN

AS SEEN IN:
"Isn't She Great?" AS PLAYED BY:
Bette Midler She's seen in that last picture with Irving Mansfield, her husband (played by Nathan Lane).

Michelle Lee also played the author with a more glamorous and more scandalous flair in another TV movie....

JACQUELINE SUSANN

AS SEEN IN:
"Scandalous Me: The Jacqueline Susann Story"

AS PLAYED BY:
Michelle Lee I have no clue who the woman - or the actress playing her - could be in that near-kiss picture......

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV II: DODGE CITY

After today's "As Seen On TV" showcase loaded up, something gnawed at me that it was wrong; and a nap finally sorted out my post-vacation mind - "As Seen On TV" should feature historical figures as they're portrayed in Toobworld. Just because Commander McBragg was wearing cowboy duds that doesn't qualify him to be presented, even if August was a our month to salute the TV Western.

So to mollify the situation - probably only of concern to me! - here's Dodge City, Kansas, as seen in the Tooniverse in that same "Dodge City Dodge" cartoon; one last location for the TV Western salute.....

First up, the bank: Then we have one of the town bars, of which I'm sure there were several:
This is the Cactus Cafeteria: And for a touch of the politically incorrect, here's a behind the scenes look in the kitchen: Here's a shot of the main street, as Commander McBragg faced off against all of the town's blackguards: And off in the distance, that's the water tower which proved instrumental in the Commander's cleaning up of Dodge: There. That should settle the score.....

BCnU!