NUMBERS RUNNING: TIME-LOCK

In the two-part 'Sarah Jane Adventures' story entitled "The Wedding Of Sarah Jane", Luke (Sarah Jane's son), his friends Clyde and Rani, and the Doctor his own self were trapped in a time loop (along with the "tin dog" K-9) - continuously reliving the 23rd second of the 23rd minute after 3 o'clock.

When they checked the various time-pieces around the wedding reception hall, this is how that time-lock appeared on a regular clock face: But this is how it looked on a digital clock, using military time: And there you have two of "the Numbers" used in the Valenzetti equation made famous in the TV series 'Lost'.

As I've stated before, I instinctively chose "42" as my favorite number in the sequence due to its use in 'The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy'. However, over time I've come to like "23" even moreso since it seemed so random and yet crops up so often in other shows..... BCnU!

THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY: BISHOP'S PERE

In "The Bishop's Revival", the latest episode of 'Fringe', we learned that Walter Bishop's father was Dr. Robert Bischoff, who worked secretly with the Allies to smuggle out the scientific breakthroughs created by the Nazis. Although official records showed Dr. Bischoff as having come to America in 1933, in fact he didn't come to America until 1943 - before the Nazis could figure out that he was a spy.

Near the end of the episode, we got to see a picture of Dr. Robert Bischoff with the other Nazi scientists; it looks to have been taken at some function: (That's Dr. Bischoff just above Peter Bishop's thumb.)

I never got around to writing it up, but I always had a candidate for the actor to play Dr. Bishop's father:

JOSEPH COTTEN & JOHN NOBLE

Of course, he's been dead for some years now. But that hasn't stopped TV producers in the past from claiming that a deceased actor could be the parent of another actor's character. This happened in the 2007 'Boston Legal' episode "Son Of The Defender", for example. Footage of Ralph Bellamy and William Shatner from the pilot episode of 'The Defenders' (shown on 'Studio One' as "The Defender") was used as flashbacks to be of Denny Crane and his father.
So even though the man in that blurry picture doesn't really look like Joseph Cotten, we could claim that by the time he had aged a few more decades in America, he became a viable candidate to become a recastaway.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: ANTON CHEKHOV

ANTON CHEKHOV

AS SEEN IN:
"The Good Doctor"

AS PLAYED BY:
Richard Chamberlain

From Wikipedia:
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (29 January, 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian short-story writer, playwright and physician, considered to be one of the greatest short-story writers in the history of world literature. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Chekhov practised as a doctor throughout most of his literary career: "Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress."

Happy 150th birthday, good doctor!

BCnU!

TELE-QUOTE (RE: THE STATE OF THE UNION)

"Ancient dusty senators,

frightened of change."

Mr. Finch

'Doctor Who'

(School Reunion)

AS SEEN ON TV: JOHN FORSYTHE & LINDA EVANS

On this date in 1918, John Forsythe was born.

JOHN FORSYTHE & LINDA EVANS

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

AS PLAYED BY:
Bartholomew John as John Forsythe
Melora Hardin as Linda Evans

From Wikipedia:
John Forsythe (born John Lincoln Freund; January 29, 1918) is an American stage, television and film actor. Forsythe starred in three television series, spanning three decades, as single playboy father Bentley Gregg in the 1950s sitcom Bachelor Father (1957–1962); as the unseen millionaire Charles Townsend on the 1970s crime drama Charlie's Angels (1976–1981), and as ruthless and beloved patriarch Blake Carrington on the 1980s soap opera Dynasty (1981–1989). He hosted World of Survival during the 1970s. Forsythe currently appears each year to read children's fiction during the annual Christmas program near his retirement home at the rural resort community of Solvang, California, north of Los Angeles.

BCnU!

THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY: THE FOWLERS

On 'White Collar', Agent Garrett Fowler is a bad apple in the FBI. And he's proving to be a particular thorn in the sides of Agent Peter Burke and Neal Caffrey, the con man who is a consultant to the Bureau.

It could be that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Ward Fowler was an actor who starred in the hit 1970's TV series 'Inspector Lucerne'. "Ward Fowler" was actually his stage name, as he had deserted the United States Army during the Korean Conflict and had been living in Canada since then under the alias. His producer, Claire Daley, had discovered his secret and had been blackmailing him. Ward Fowler finally had his fill and he killed Claire with the intent of making it look like she was a victim during a botched deli hold-up. Unfortunately for him, Lt. 'Columbo' figured it out and Fowler went to prison. (It was also hinted in the finale that the actor had gone slightly insane.....)

Fowler was single during the period in which the murder occurred, but that doesn't mean he wasn't married earlier; nor does it mean that he didn't have any kids. He may fathered a son around 1965, and that boy could well be Garrett Fowler. Garrett went into law enforcement in order to atone for his father's sins. At least... that's what he would tell people.....

It's also possible that a year earlier, Ward Fowler fathered another son whom he also named Garrett. This son also became a cop, probably for the same reason but he actually meant it. Although a rebel, the first Garrett was still a good cop, and he was put in charge of a team of cops with physical and mental challenges, as seen in the TV movie/pilot "Special Unit". (Naming both your sons "Garrett" is not as crazy an idea as you may think - remember, George Foreman named all of his kids "George"....)

An argument could certainly be made that the two Garrett Fowlers are related....

None of this is likely to ever come up in future episodes of 'White Collar', so Toobworld Central is content to let it stand.

Remember, this "Theory of Realateeveety" is just that - a theory.

BCnU!

CROSSOVER CLARIFICTION 4 KRISTIN

Kristin Dos Santos of E! Online apparently doesn't know what the word crossover means.....

First she made this annoucnement:
"Good news if you are a fan of Leighton Meester and Nina Dobrev: Their executive producer has promised to "work on" getting these real-life friends to guest star on each other's CW shows."The shows she's talking about are 'Gossip Girl' and 'The Vampire Diaries' respectively.

And then she ended with:
"Nina and Leighton, I usually charge 10 percent commission in such cases, but in this case you can pay us fans with some good crossover TV!"

THIS IS NOT A TV CROSSOVER!

In a TV crossover, it's their characters who would determine the crossover. Creating new characters for them to play on the other's show would just be a whole new character with no other tie to any other show.

And they'd have to appear as different characters. As much as I'd be okay with shows from different genres interacting, I don't think the network would warm up to that idea.

But who knows? They might still surprise us.

BCnU!

THE DOUBLE LIFE OF BENJAMIN CASPER PEREZ GONZALEZ

During its run on the CW, 'Reaper' never gave any reason for it to be banished to an alternate TV dimension; even the appearance of the Devil differing from his appearance in 'Brimstone', 'The Twilight Zone', 'Eastwick' and other shows can be splained away by His Maleficence's supernatural powers.

But that doesn't mean 'Reaper' can't exist in other TV dimensions as well as in the main Toobworld. We've seen so many TV characters who had doppelgangers in the "evil mirror universe", for example. So it's pozz'ble, jus' pozz'ble, that the characters and stories of 'Reaper' could also exist in the world of 'The West Wing', where 'Castle' also exists.

But they don't have to have the same outcomes as in the original episodes. And with 'Reaper' cancelled, the fates of all the characters could conceivably go off in all sorts of directions, no matter which dimension they're in... as we may have seen in this week's episode of 'Castle'. In 'The Third Man', Rick Gonzalez guest-starred as Mickey Carlson, the first suspect in Detective Beckett's murder investigation. He was homeless and working as a delivery boy for the New York Ledger, and he made a habit of crashing in people's apartments when they went away on vacation.

It could be argued (and you know Toobworld Central will!) that Mickey Carlson was in fact Benjy Gonzalez, the character Rick Gonzalez played on 'Reaper'. Who knows what transpired after that show - even if this is the alternate version - went off the air back in May of 2009? It could be things went southland in the relationship of this version of Benjy and Nina soon after the "exorcism", and Benjy may have felt it necessary to get out of Seattle and live somewhere else for awhile. So he changed his name to Mickey Carlson and disappeared into the homeless ranks in the Big Apple. There's a pozz'bility that 'Castle' might be able to rejoin the main Toobworld due to a major reboot of the Toobworld timeline, caused by shows like 'Primeval' or 'Lost', or by smaller events never to be seen in 'Doctor Who', 'Journeyman', 'Quantum Leap', or even 'The Time Tunnel'. If so, this theory could still work if we're dealing with the Benjy Gonzalez/Mickey Carlson of the main Toobworld. And in the unlikely case that there's ever a reunion TV movie for the series to give it the closure it needs, this theory would all be in the past with no need to be mentioned - at some point before we revisited the 'Reaper' characters again, with Benjy reunited with his friends Sam, Andi, and Sock, and perhaps even Nina. Woiks for me!

BCnU!

LEDGER ACCOUNTS

For the time being, 'Castle' has to be considered a part of an alternate TV dimension; I'd like to think it's part of the TV Land in which we'd find 'The West Wing'. This is because they've shown the Mayor of New York City to be a middle-aged black man. (I think his name is Bob.) In Toobworld, the current Mayor is Mike Bloomberg, as seen in '30 Rock', 'Law & Order', and the Muppets Christmas special.

The situation could always change in the future; that's the great thing about the TV Universe - it's always in a state of flux. If the mayor never makes another appearance on the show before it's cancelled, then we can make the claim that 'Castle' was affected by the timeline reboot of 'Primeval'. With that adjustment, even though we'd only have the original version to view, we could claim that it played out in the new timeline with Richard Castle and Detective Kate Beckett meeting Bloomberg at the celebrity fund-raiser.
In the meantime, it's not just the mayor that sets 'Castle' apart from the rest of Earth Prime-Time. It's also their version of the New York Ledger newspaper. On 'Castle' it's a broadsheet like the New York Times. But in the 'Law & Order' franchise, where it began, it's a tabloid like the Post or the Daily News.

The online site for the Ledger is different between the two shows as well. Here's how it looked in an episode of 'Castle':
And here's how it appeared when Jack McCoy brought up the site in the most recent episode of 'Law & Order' ("Blackmail"):
Now, if they were sharing the same TV Universe, I'd make the effort to create a splainin for the different web designs. But as it is, this is just one of the differences between the two dimensions.

The most recent 'Castle' episode, "The Third Man", had an establishing shot of the New York Ledger building:
I don't know if we ever saw it in the TV show 'Deadline', which was an off-shoot of the 'Law & Order' franchise, but again, we can use the excuse of alternate TV dimensions to splain away the differences.

Just another example of the trivial effluvia that catches my eye while watching TV....

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD: VICTOR CIANCA

Victor Cianca has passed away at the age of 92. Maybe the name is not familiar to you, but once you see him in action, doing the job that he loved, you should remember him.



That's just raw footage of Cianca in action, but 'Candid Camera' took similar film of the Pittsburgh traffic cop and set it to classical music. It's probably one of the most famous videos ever to come out of that show.

Rest in peace, Officer Cianca. And thank you for those early memories from the (slightly) more realistic side of Toobworld.

BCnU.....

AS SEEN ON TV: THE OLSEN TWINS

MARY KATE & ASHLEY OLSEN

As seen online TV, that is.....

AS SEEN IN:



AS PLAYED BY:
Elaine Carroll

There are other videos there in the series, so if you enjoyed this one, look around at the others.....

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD: ZELDA RUBENSTEIN

Zelda Rubenstein has passed away at the age of 76. Standing 4'-3", she made a large impression on movie audiences with her appearance as the clairvoyant in 'Poltergeist'.

For Toobworld, she is best known for playing Ginny Weedon, the dispatcher for the police department in Rome, Wisconsin, as seen on 'Picket Fences'.

Now usually, we take comfort in the idea that even though the actor has passed away, the character they created lives on after them in Toobworld. Sadly though, Ginny Weedon died during the course of the series. She fell into her deep freezer and the lid slammed shut behind her. (The TV Universe has seen plenty of strange deaths in the last sixty years of broadcasting, but 'Picket Fences' seemed to have more than its fair share of them....)

So we tip our hat to Zelda Rubenstein and to the memory of Ginny Weedon. As Red Skelton would say, good night and may God bless.

BCnU.....

BETTER OFF TED... AND SHIRLEY

One of the great mysteries of the TV biz for this outsider will always be - Why can't the great shows find an audience? 'Pushing Daisies' was a recent example, and now 'Better Off Ted' appears to be headed for cancellation as well. Such a funny, well-crafted series with sharp writing and hilarious characters.

Last night's episode, "Mess Of A Salesman" may have been the last episode for the series, even though they still have two shows left. If so, I'll mourn its loss and make sure to clear space for it in the Toobworld Central DVD library.

In the meantime, one of my best friends, Shirley Jordan was one of the guest stars last night. Here she is with star Jay Harrington....



Little girls screaming and dead bodies...... If I always laugh at that, it doesn't mean there's something wrong with me, does it?

BCnU!

NUMBERS RUNNING: AS SEEN ON TV

Speaking of 'Lost', "the Numbers" are still making appearances in other shows found in Toobworld...... Channel 8 is a TV station in Washington, D.C., as seen in the 'Bones' episode "The Proof In The Pudding".

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

Sir Francis Drake died on this date in 1595....

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE

AS SEEN IN:
"The Immortal Voyage Of Captain Drake"

AS PLAYED BY:
Adrian Paul

As Terence Morgan's portrayal in the TV series 'Sir Francis Drake' is the official version of the "Queen's Pirate", this most likely occurred in an alternate TV dimension.....

BCnU!

"LOST": ONE WEEK TO GO!

For the last couple of years, I'd watch the season finale of 'Lost' and think to myself, I have to wait until next year until that comes back again? It was no different this past May and now here it is - 'Lost' returns next Tuesday!

I'm wondering how I'll feel when the end credits roll on the last episode of this final season......

BCnU!

WISH-CRAFT: CLOSING TIME

I watched the 'Law & Order' episode that was loosely based on the Letterman "Blackmail" case on Monday. At the end as they left the office for the night, Rubirosa was disgusted that they had to resort to the tactics of the criminals in order to secure a conviction. She wondered if that meant if they wanted to try a murderer, they'd have to kill somebody.

Cutter told her that they'd have to ask the boss first. Then the camera focused on the open door to Jack McCoy's office as it faded out.

Here's my Wish-Craft: I would have liked to hear Sam Waterston shout from inside the office something along the lines of "I heard that!"

It would have been a nice pick-me-up to an episode that seemed to lose steam as it trudged on.....

BCnU!

SKED ALERT: CROSSOVERS VIA "DRAGON'S DEN"

Next week, three of the Dragons from 'Dragons' Den' are to appear as themselves in an episode of 'Hustle'.

In the February 1st episode, Deborah Meaden, Peter Jones and Duncan Bannatyne will be seen competing with each other to invest in an idea proposed by a guy named Mervyn, as he is such a "fantastic businessman". Turns out it's a fantasy in Mervyn's mind; in reality, the concept he's promoting is just a scam cooked up by the 'Hustle' gang of con men to rip Mervyn off.

I'm not sure if this will show up in America on AMC; I don't think they've carried the show for awhile.....

But we have seen 'Dragon's Den' appear in another show, 'The It Crowd'. So this pseudo-reality program can connect the sitcom to 'Hustle'......
BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: DOUBLE LUCKY

On this date in 1962, Lucky Luciano the mobster died of a heart attack at the Naples airport....

LUCKY LUCIANO

AS SEEN IN:
'The Untouchables'

AS PLAYED BY:
Robert Carricart

LUCKY LUCIANO

AS SEEN IN:
'Voyagers!'

AS PLAYED BY:
Michael Gregory

Two for Tuesday!

BCnU!

GARNERING A BOOTH

It will probably be the closest I'll ever get to my wish to see James Garner playing a family member of Agent Booth's on 'Bones':

Angela did a facial reconstruction of the mysterious skull brought in to the Jeffersonian Institute and it gave credence to their suspicions that the body was that of President John F. Kennedy. The staff had been under strict orders from "Mr. White" not to make suppositions about the skeletal remains, so they all came up with different possible identities based on that picture:

Ricky Martin

Alex Trebek

James Garner

and even Booth himself.

Me? I see Potsie.....

When Ralph Waite came on board in a guest spot as Booth's grandfather, I wasn't worried that my hope for Garner to play Booth's grand-dad was shot down. After all, Garner could play the grandfather on the maternal side. So that's a possibility that still might come to fruition.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: HENRY VIII & ANNE BOLEYN

Time to celebrate another wedding!

HENRY VIII & ANNE BOLEYN

AS SEEN IN:
'The Tudors'

AS PLAYED BY:
Jonathan Rhys Meyers as King Henry
Natalie Dormer as Anne Boleyn

On this date in 1533, Henry VIII secretly married his second wife Anne Boleyn.....

BCnU!

GOING LONG FOR THE NETWORK....

FOX has got football fever with this crossover from the Tooniverse.....



BCnU!

CLASSIC ZONK: MILEAGE MAY VARY

When my co-worker Maurizio (TV favorite: 'EastEnders') sent me this video, I watched it on a computer that had no speakers. I was spazzing out in telegasmic glory as I saw the ghosts of the Cartwrights use their serlinguistic skills to sell cars. Other serlinguists - those who can break the fourth wall and talk directly to the people of the real world - were the Witches of Westport and 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' And because Endora used her magic to summon Hoss Cartwright into the present, he was alive while his pa and his two brothers were the spirits of the dead.

And then I got home and saw it with the sound restored......



I don't know what to make of it now. Whatever TV dimension it lands in will have its hands full. Most of the people on screen are identified by their names as actors (including a quick cameo by Dick York), but there's still the fact that magic is used to summon Dan Blocker.

Kind of creepy the way Agnes Moorehead fawns over Blocker.....

I figure that this was an ad that ran near the beginning of the 1965 Fall TV season, at least on ABC and NBC. (No CBS stars were used for the ad.) The whole reason we have Fall TV premieres was because of the tie-in to the unveiling of the new line of automobiles each year. But if the Toobits Awards existed back then, this would have been the clear winner of the Biggest Zonk of 1965!

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD: JEAN SIMMONS

Actress Jean Simmons has passed away at the age of 80. She is being remembered chiefly for her movie roles - twice nominated for an Oscar, she appeared in "Hamlet", "Elmer Gantry", "Spartacus", "Great Expectations" and "Guys And Dolls". On television, she won an Emmy for the mini-series "The Thorn Birds" and played Miss Havisham in a production of "Great Expectations", which marked her second time in an adaptation of that Dickens novel. (She played Miss Havisham's companion Estella in the 1940s movie version.)

But for all of me here at Toobworld Central, Ms. Simmons will always be fondly remembered as Princess Lydia of Lichtenburg in an episode of 'The Odd Couple'. And this would be so even if her fictional country didn't serve as a link to the TV series 'Saved By The Bell'.....

As Red Skelton would say, good night, Ms. Simmons, and may God bless......

BCnU......

AS SEEN ON TV: THE DEATH OF CALIGULA

On this date in the year 41, Gaius Caesar, better known as Caligula, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. Claudius succeeds his nephew.





AS SEEN IN:
'I, Claudius'

AS PLAYED BY:
John Hurt - Caligula
Derek Jacobi - Claudius

BCnU!