Now that I'm back from vacation, here's a little something different for the "As Seen On TV" showcase......
In Toobworld, the official televersion of Bat Masterson was played by Gene Barry; Hugh O'Brian is THE Wyatt Earp for Earth Prime-Time. They first shared the same airwaves in the fourth "Gambler" TV movie, "The Luck Of The Draw". But it wasn't until 'Guns Of Paradise' extended episode (yeah, basically a TV movie) that they actually met face to face.
And yet within the frameworks of their TV series 'Bat Masterson' and 'The Life And Legend Of Wyatt Earp', both frontier lawmen thought they had met the other. But that's exactly who they were meeting - "others".
In Toobworld, the official televersion of Bat Masterson was played by Gene Barry; Hugh O'Brian is THE Wyatt Earp for Earth Prime-Time. They first shared the same airwaves in the fourth "Gambler" TV movie, "The Luck Of The Draw". But it wasn't until 'Guns Of Paradise' extended episode (yeah, basically a TV movie) that they actually met face to face.
And yet within the frameworks of their TV series 'Bat Masterson' and 'The Life And Legend Of Wyatt Earp', both frontier lawmen thought they had met the other. But that's exactly who they were meeting - "others".
The ersatz Earp with Bat Masterson"The Reluctant Witness"
The bogus Bat with Wyatt Earp"Dodge Is Civilized"
The funny thing is, the two impostors look closer to the historical truth than the official televersions. (I think those mustaches help.) But the amount of video enjoyed by Gene Barry and Hugh O'Brian weigh heavily in their favors.
When I said "others", the "Others" from 'Lost', but two men who were impersonating Earp and Masterson. Once again we see that "Famous Impostor Syndrome", also known in the Wold Newton Universe as "Great Detective Syndrome" for all of the impersonators of Sherlock Holmes, has been employed in the Wild, Wild West.
The best splainin for this kind of impersonation would be quantum leaping. Somebody with access to the technology developed by Dr. Sam Beckett, but from farther into the Future, could have been able to leap beyond his own lifetime to impersonate just about anybody during that time on the frontier.
Like a quantum leaper who chose to impersonate Samuel Clemens in one of three episodes of 'Bonanza' which featured the author*, both men made sure they looked like their "leapees", even though people would only see the aura of the men being replaced.
(In the real world, Alan Dinehart III played the Bat Masterson leaper, and Ron Hayes was the Wyatt Earp leaper.)
BCnU!
* "The Emperor Norton" had the quantum leaping Samuel Clemens. Each of the other two 'Bonanza' episodes had different splainins for their televersions of "Mark Twain".
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