AS SEEN ON TV: YIGAL ALLON

YIGAL ALLON

AS SEEN IN:

"Raid On Entebbe"

AS PLAYED BY:

Robert Loggia

Yigal Allon (10 October 1918 – 29 February 1980) was an Israeli politician, a commander of the Palmach, and a general in the IDF. He served as one of the leaders of Ahdut HaAvoda party and the Israeli Labor party, acting Prime Minister of Israel, as well as being a member of Knesset and government minister from the tenth through the seventeenth Knessets.

He became the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1974, and held this post until 1977. (This is the capacity in which he was serving at the time of the Entebbe raid.)

And it's purely serendipiteevee that today would have been his birthday. I just noticed that!

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: IDI AMIN DADA

As we head towards the thirteen day remembrance of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the "As Seen On TV" gallery, I'm feeling a bit in the international mood. (I usually feel that way, but more towards the International House of Pancakes frame of mind....)

And since today marks the anniversary of Uganda becoming an independent Commonwealth realm in 1962, who better to feature in the showcase but Idi Amin?

Okay, I'm sure there could have been plenty of other options that were better, but it does tie in well with the overall October theme of horror and monsters.......

IDI AMIN DADA

AS SEEN IN:
'Saturday Night Live'

AS PLAYED BY:
Garrett Morris

I wanted to find a good picture of either Julius Harris or Yaphet Kotto as that syphilitic cannibal, as they both portrayed Amin in TV movies about the Israeli hostage rescue in Entebbe. Surprisingly, I couldn't find anything more than the poster for "Raid On Entebbe". (Although there is a great picture from a James Bond movie of both Harris and Kotto together.)

So we had to go over to Skitlandia, which is probably all that murderous buffoon deserved....

I feel the most tenuous connections to Idi Amin because of one of the SNL sketches - during the May, 1979 bit about him being an unwelcome houseguest, the script spoofed the blipvert for the Collingwood hotel which used to run all the time on late night TV. A few years later, and I would be working at the place on Saturday nights.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI

DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI

AS SEEN IN:
'Desperate Romantics'

AS PLAYED BY:
Aidan Turner

With John Millais
[Played by Samuel Barnett]

With John Ruskin
[Played by Tom Hollander]

From Wikipedia:

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882) was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement. He was also a major precursor of the Aesthetic movement.

Rossetti's art was characterised by its sensuality and its medieval revivalism. His early poetry was influenced by Keats. His later poetry was characterised by the complex interlinking of thought and feeling, especially in his sonnet sequence The House of Life.

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV/HAT SQUAD: PEG MULLEN

From the New York Times:

Peg Mullen, an Iowa farm wife who made herself a living symbol of loss after her son was killed in Vietnam, as she sharply questioned the military’s explanations and became an outspoken antiwar crusader, died Friday in La Porte City, Iowa. She was 92.

After her son Michael was killed by shrapnel from United States artillery on Feb. 18, 1970, Mrs. Mullen did not disguise her rage. She used his death benefit to buy two half-page advertisements in The Des Moines Register, each with more than 700 crosses, one for each Iowan killed in the war.

C. D. B. Bryan, an author and journalist, wrote about the suffering of Mrs. Mullen and her family in “Friendly Fire,” a book that was serialized in The New Yorker and received wide attention when published in 1976.

In 1979, "Friendly Fire" was adapted as a TV movie....

PEG and GENE MULLEN

AS SEEN IN:
"Friendly Fire"

AS PLAYED BY:
Carol Burnett as Peg Mullen
Ned Beatty as Gene Mullen

Also in the cast were Dennis Erdman as their son Michael, Timothy Hutton as their other son John, and Sam Waterston as C.D. Bryan, who wrote the original book. (William Jordan portrayed Colonel Byron Schindler, a fictionalized version of Norman Schwarzkopf. In her own book, Mrs. Mullen was very critical of Schwarzkopf, who had been Michael's commanding officer.)

From the Los Angeles Times:

"She brought to the forefront the idea of friendly fire. It was a term that never got much play until that time," [said her surviving son John]. "I think she'll be remembered as somebody who asked a lot of questions, somebody who wouldn't take a pat answer, somebody who would stand up for something she believed in. You need those types of people."

BCnU.....

A MUSICAL INTERLUDE: JOSHUA BELL & TIEMPO LIBRE

I'm still on semi-hiatus status; I'm just passing this along as a favor to my friends Stella & Alex.....

Here's Joshua Bell and Tiempo Libre as they appeared on the 'Tonight' show with Conan O'Brien Friday night. As Stella put it: "They were amazing! Mind blowing, actually. Tiempo Liebre was spot on and Joshua was... well.. outstanding. It was a really good collaboration [on 'Para Ti']."

So here they are, teaming up on 'Tonight'. Check it out while you can. (The link may be tracked down and removed.....)



BCnU!

TVXOHOF, 10/2009-A: ROD SERLING

Submitted for your approval....

Traditionally with October, the TV Crossover Hall of Fame gets into a Halloween/Samhain frame of mind - in the past, Frankenstein's Monster, Dr. Bombay, Exigius 12 1/2 (Uncle Martin the Martian), and real life monsters like Jack The Ripper and Lee Harvey Oswald have been inducted into the Hall of Fame during October. This year, since we're inducting one new member every week for four different categories, in celebration of the Hall's tenth anniversary, we're going to begin with someone from the League of Themselves - someone who made his name scaring the bejabbers out of the TV audience.

ROD SERLING

As the host of 'The Twilight Zone' and of 'Night Gallery', Rod Serling lent his name to the Toobworldian concept in which TV characters can talk directly to the audience viewing at home: "serlinguism". The "T-Zone" stories he presented were not always taking place on the main Toobworld, but instead in other dimensions and sometimes on other planets, But he was always firmly planted on Earth Prime-Time, and in fact was actually part of one story - the first season finale, "A World Of His Own" (which is an integral part of the Toobworld mythos, by the way).

'The Twilight Zone' and 'Night Gallery' were not Serling's only contributions to the world of television; he created some of the greatest dramatic presentations ever seen on the Toob: like "Patterns" and "Requiem For A Heavyweight". And it was a behind-the-scenes look at the production of the live broadcast for "Requiem" that garnered another appearance by Serling in Toobworld.

"The Man In The Funny Suit", presented by 'The Desilu Westinghouse Playhouse' told of the travails suffered by Keenan Wynn in making sure his father Ed Wynn would be able to deliver a straight performance in the play without falling back on his clownish material in case he flubbed up. With reassurances by fellow clown Red Skelton, Rod Serling was persuaded to let Ed Wynn continue and he ended up delivering a solid performance.

In this teleplay, Rod Serling, Red Skelton, Keenan Wynn, and Ed Wynn all played themselves. (This is definitely something I'm going to look for the next time I'm at the Paley Center for Media!)

Finally, it's a mention of Rod Serling that nabs him the coveted spot in the TV Crossover Hall of Fame, League of Themselves wing. And it's not just any mention, many a sitcom would name check Serling, usually as part of a joke. (Jackie Thomas, in an episode of 'The Jackie Thomas Show', confused him with Rod Steiger when he was talking about 'The Twilight Zone'.)

But in this reference, 'Perry Mason' mentioned to a client that he knew Rod Serling, considered him a friend, and that he'd persuade the TV icon to look at the client's manuscript. A relationship with a fictional character can fully integrate a real world person into the world of the Toob. And even though we didn't get to see it, who's going to doubt the word of Perry Mason? The really nice thing about this supposed honorific is that it happens in the month in which 'The Twilight Zone' celebrates its 50th anniversary. It's just a shame that Serling died back in 1975 at the age of 51 while undergoing heart surgery. It might have been nice for him to be around for that celebration, if not for this one.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: DAVID LETTERMAN, AGAIN!

As promised, today's "Two for Tuesday" showcase is again of David Letterman - one from Skitlandia and one from the Tooniverse.....

DAVID LETTERMAN

AS SEEN IN:
'Saturday Night Live'

AS PLAYED BY:
Norm MacDonald
AS SEEN IN:
'The Critic'

AS PLAYED BY:
n/a

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: CHIEF JUSTICE EARL WARREN

For the First Monday of October, when the United States Supreme Court traditionally begins its new year in session, we're appearing before the Bench with today's "As Seen On TV"....

CHIEF JUSTICE EARL WARREN

AS SEEN IN:
'Kennedy'

AS PLAYED BY:
Don McLaughlin

He's seen here in a TV image, listening to President John F. Kennedy's inaugural speech......

BCnU!

ZOMBIE TV

Rising up from Lurk Ness to let you know about a new online TV series about the next big supernatural craze, now that vampires have saturated the Toob - zombies.

There's a new web series starting tomorrow on Crackle.com, "Woke Up Dead" starring Jon Heder of "Napoleon Dynamite" fame (That should be in quotes too, as I didn't like the movie), and co-starring Jean Smart and Wayne Knight. It's about a young guy who believes he's changing into a zombie.

Here's a preview:

From Crackle: Woke Up Dead Preview

Brainnnnnnnnnnssssssssss!

BE10U!

AS SEEN ON TV: DAVID LETTERMAN

What with the biggest TV news story of last week, who better to kick off this week's gallery in the "As Seen On TV" showcase?

DAVID LETTERMAN

AS SEEN IN:
"The Late Shift"

AS PLAYED BY:
John Michael Higgins "The Late Shift" was a TV movie that looked behind the scenes at the struggle between the David Letterman and Jay Leno camps to land the 'Tonight' gig after Johnny Carson decided it was time to retire.

BCnU!

PS:
It was such a big news story about the extortion plot against Letterman that "As Seen On TV" will revisit this subject on Tuesday with a "Two For Tuesday" showcase!