THE HAT SQUAD: DENNIS HOPPER (3)

Another Dennis Hopper TV appearance....



BCnU.....

THE HAT SQUAD: DENNIS HOPPER (2)

With the passing of Dennis Hopper today at the age of 74, I wanted to find something that exemplified him as a member of the League of Themselves - people who appear as fictionalized versions of themselves in Toobworld. I was thinking of the time he was in an episode of 'Entourage', but I found instead this interview he did with Jiminy Glick for Netflix.......



BCnU.....

THE HAT SQUAD: DENNIS HOPPER (1)

Dennis Hopper died today at the age of 74.

I'm sorry the quality isn't very good on this, but here's Hopper as the Utah Kid in an episode of 'Cheyenne'.



If you ever get the chance, you should seek out his performance as Billy the Kid in the debut episode of 'Sugarfoot'. I know the Paley Center for Media has it......

Good night and may God bless.

BCnU......

MAKE SURE THE KIDS AREN'T IN THE ROOM!

Hey, kids! It's Saturday morning!

Fix yourself a big bowl of sugary cereal and plop yourself down to watch some children's programming.....



Of course, in American TV nothing is ever that subtle......



I'm a baaaaaaaaad boy.....

BCnU!

"LOST" QUESTIONS UNANSWERED?

I hope this embedded video works.....

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

THE DERWENT LINE

When Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men were finally able to throw off the shackles laid upon them and their countrymen by Prince John, they received pardons for their actions by the returning King Richard the Lion-Hearted. In recognition of all that they had done to preserve his kingdom in his absence, the outlaws of Sherwood Forest may have also been granted rewards.

Most of the men probably went back to their old lives, like Much the Miller's Son. But others may have taken advantage of their reward to better their lot in life. One such Merry Man might have been Derwent, who seems only to exist in the televersion of Robin Hood's legend and in the Earth Prime-Time version only at that, which aired during the 1950's.

Derwent might have invested his reward wisely and enriched the coffers of his family. And with money comes power and influence - down through the generations, the Derwent family built up their fiscal strength to make inroads into English society. And with perhaps some glories achieved in service to the crown on battlefields over the centuries, the Derwent line may have finally been granted access to the nobility of the realm.

And so, without knowing exactly who all of the interceding generations were (I know the Wold Newtonites would have it all mapped out!), Toobworld Central is still willing to suggest a theory of relateeveety: Lady Frances Derwent, known to her friends in the mid-1930's as "Frankie," was a direct line descendent of Robin Hood's man, Derwent.

Don't see why not.....
By the way, any future generations via Lady Francis would have the family surname of Derwent-Jones because of her eventual marriage to her crime-solving partner, Bobby Jones. ("Nothing like the golfer.")

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: ROBIN HOOD

ROBIN HOOD

AS SEEN IN:
"Wishbone"

AS PLAYED BY:
Soccer & Larry Brantley (voice)

From Wikipedia:
Robin Hood is a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor," assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men." Traditionally in films, Robin and many of his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes. Some accounts give the colour worn by Robin as scarlet, which may provide an explanation for the name "Robin."

Robin Hood became a popular folk figure starting in medieval times continuing through modern literature, films, and television. In the earliest sources Robin Hood is a commoner, but he was often later portrayed as an aristocrat wrongfully dispossessed of his lands and made into an outlaw by an unscrupulous sheriff.

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD: GARY COLEMAN (2)

This has been a rough year when it comes to 'Diff'rent Strokes'. Just last week Dana Plato's son killed himself on the day after the 11th anniversary of his mother's death. And Dixie Carter passed away in April.

And now Gary Coleman is dead at the age of 42. He suffered a brain hemorrhage after a fall at his home in Utah a few days ago.

His character of Arnold Jackson Drummond has always been on the list for membership in the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame, but it always seemed like there'd be plenty of time for that "honor". Now it'll be more as a memorial when it happens.

Along with the 184 episodes of 'Diff'rent Strokes', Arnold was seen in several other TV series as well. He had the Golden Touch for NBC back in the 1980's.

'The Facts Of Life'
("Rough Housing")
("The New Girl - Part 1")

'Silver Spoons'
("The Great Computer Caper")

'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'
("I, Done - Part 2")

He also appeared in "Remote Control Man", an episode of 'Amazing Stories', but that took place in an alternate TV dimension in which the TV shows that make up the mosaic of Earth Prime-Time are merely TV shows, just like in the Trueniverse.

Probably the two most valuable people to be found at NBC in the 1980's were Brandon Tartikoff and Gary Coleman as Arnold Jackson (although I'm sure the argument could be made for others as well.)

Life hadn't been easy for Gary Coleman once the show ended and adulthood kicked in; seems like every time he was in the news he was either in trouble or being treated as some kind of freak attraction. Hopefully, he's free of all troubles now.....

Good night and may God bless.

BCnU.......

THE HAT SQUAD: GARY COLEMAN (1)

In remembering Gary Coleman, who passed away today from injuries suffered in a fall at his home at the age of 42, many bloggers will probably be posting pictures and video of his work on 'Diff'rent Strokes'. I'll be doing that as well, since his character of Arnold Jackson was a diminutive dynamo who proved to be a major boon for NBC in the 1980s.

But I'd like to share my first memory of Coleman, as he was seen in 'America 2Night', the 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman' spin-off (via 'Fernwood 2Night').



In another episode - although it may have been on 'Fernwood 2Night' - he was the substitute host for the show with a young kid who was just about as dense as the original side-kick, Jerry Hubbard.

Good night and may God bless.

BCnU....

FRINGE OF THE GIANTS

In several episodes of 'Fringe' during its sophomore year, including the season finale, there's been a character identified simply as "Store Owner". He's the guy who runs the pawn shop/jumk shop with the backroom containing that typewriter which should only exist in the alternate dimension.

I'm not sure if it could be said that he should look familiar to fans of the sci-fi TV genre, because it's been decades since his last regular role, so I'm just going to come out with it: He's Stefan Arngrim, who played the boy Barry Lockridge in 'Land Of The Giants'. And until 'Fringe' decides to ruin the illusion by giving him a name, Toobworld Central is going to claim that he's playing Barry still!

Arngrim is not playing his age in 'Fringe', however. Within the timeline of Toobworld, 'Land Of The Giants' began in the mid 1980's. So as an adult as seen in 'Fringe', Barry should be almost twenty years younger than he appears. (Arngrim is the same age as I am.)

That he's back on Earth Prime-Time O'Bviously means that his return from the 'Land Of The Giants' must have happened out of the view of the audience at home in the Trueniverse. And he didn't return directly to the main Toobworld - if Barry is working with the people from the alternate Toobworld, it's probable that he ended up over there on his return trip. They might even have been the ones responsible for a rescue mission since they are more advanced in technology than the main Toobworld.

Once they had him "home," it would have been easy to brainwash him into betraying his home dimension. ("They left you to die over there;" "If it wasn't for us.....;" "Helping us is the only way you can ever return home" etc.)

What they may not have known is that Earth Prime-Time did mount a rescue mission that failed miserably; and because of that (and the cost in lives and resources), no other attempts were made. It was assumed that the passengers and crew of the Spindrift had to be killed by the giants just as the rescue mission team was. (We saw this occur in 'The Twilight Zone' episode "The Invaders.")
Traversing from the Land of the Giants into the dimension where Walternate exists and then finally back to his home dimension may have aged Barry Lockridge on a cellular level and that could be why the character looks as old as the actor playing him. This theory would hold true for any of the other characters if they crossed back over as well. (If Colonel Fitzhugh was still alive at the time of the return trip, surely it aged him so much that he passed away.)

Again, this all holds together only so long as we never learn the name of the Store Owner on 'Fringe'...... BTW, I think the argument could be made that one of Barry Lockridge's ancestors was Nellie Olsen of 'Little House On The Prairie'. (Stefan Arngrim's sister Allison played Nellie, so we can claim there's a family resemblance.) In the Wold Newton Crossover Universe, it was claimed that Nellie grew up to become a prostitute, but Toobworld doesn't have to follow that same line of thinking.....

BCnU!

BACK-TRACKING JACK

In the past, Toobworld Central has made the suggestion that sometimes the televersion of God has stepped in to create a do-over in the TV Universe. That is, He has rolled back Time to alter events that already transpired.

Usually this has taken the form of recastaways which can't be covered by the usual splainins like plastic surgery or quantum leaping. There are two specific examples I have of that - 'The Sopranos' and 'Seinfeld'.

On 'Seinfeld', great character actor John Randolph had been cast to play George's father, Frank Costanza. But they soon brought in Jerry Stiller to play the role instead and he indelibly made it his own. Normally, we'd have to then come up with a reason for the recasting, but in this case it wasn't necessary. Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David decided to reshoot Randolph's scenes with Stiller and then replace the original footage for the eventual DVD sales. It was as though John Randolph's portrayal of Frank Costanza never existed. (But they didn't bother to do this with the role of Jerry's dad, played in the pilot by Phil Bruns, once Barney Martin came on board as Morty. Probably because too much time had passed and Jerry looked slightly older than he did in the pilot.)

On 'The Sopranos', Fairuza Balk was originally hired to play FBI Agent Deborah Ciccerone and she filmed a few scenes for a season finale. But then the next season was pushed back so that David Chase could plot out the next two seasons rather than just one, and Balk needed to be replaced. Lola Glaudini was now cast in the role and Chase also re-filmed those first couple of scenes so that Glaudini would always be Ciccerone within the show. No trace of Fairuza Balk was left in the world of 'The Sopranos'.

So to splain this away, Toobworld Central makes the claim that God went back to the very moment of conception for both characters and caused a different sperm to reach the egg. And that's why they look so vastly different.

I'm going to make the claim that God turned back Time again within the series finale of 'Lost' as well, but not for the purpose of a recastaway. It was in order to change the course of events during the ultimate battle between Jack and the Locke-ness Monster.

Jack and the Man in Black rushed towards each other and Jack leaped into the air with the intent of landing down upon the fake Locke. And that's when the show cut to a commercial break. But when the show returned, Jack was back up the slope and once again rushing towards Locke. Time was turned back because in the original scenario, Locke must have thrust upwards with his knife as Jack came down and killed him. With Jack dead, the Golden Light would remain extinguished which would have brought an end to the world, not just the Island.

So there was a bit of a reboot and this time Jack's approach varied. He was still stabbed by MiB, but it wasn't immediately fatal. He still had time to fulfill his duties as the Island's guardian by restoring the Light.

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: LORD BEAVERBROOK

LORD BEAVERBROOK

AS SEEN IN:
'Edward & Mrs. Simpson'

AS PLAYED BY:
Ed Devereaux

From Wikipedia:
William Maxwell "Max" Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, Bt, PC, (25 May 1879 – 9 June 1964) was a Canadian-British business tycoon, politician, and writer.

The year he moved to England, Aitken became Liberal Unionist Member of Parliament for Ashton-under-Lyne. Aitken began to build a London newspaper empire. He often worked closely with Andrew Bonar Law, another native of New Brunswick, who became the only Canadian to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. In 1911, he was knighted by King George V.

Adding to his chain of newspapers, which included the London Evening Standard, he bought a controlling interest in the failing Daily Express from Lawson Johnson on 14 November 1916 for £17,500. He was granted a peerage in 1917 as the 1st Baron Beaverbrook, the name "Beaverbrook" being adopted from a small community near his boyhood home. The name "Beaverbrook" had the advantage of conveying a distinctive Canadian ring to the title.

In 1918 he became the first Minister of Information. He became responsible for allied propaganda in allied and neutral countries. He would become known by some historians as the first baron of "Fleet Street" and as one of the most powerful men in Britain whose newspapers could make or break almost anyone.

In the 1930s, while personally attempting to dissuade King Edward VIII from continuing his potentially ruinous affair with American divorcee, Wallis Simpson, Lord Beaverbrook's newspapers published every tidbit of the affair, especially allegations about pro-Nazi sympathies.

BCnU!

(A few days late to remember his birthday.....)

AND SO IT GOES......

THE LOST DOCTOR WHO

No, sorry. The subject heading does not mean that I have discovered a copy of "Power Of The Daleks".
Although I had some questions still about the whole purgatory church aspect of the 'Lost' finale (along with so many of the show's other unresolved mysteries), I was happy that it turned out that everything that occurred in the storyline leading up to their arrival in the afterlife actually took place in the main Toobworld. Like they said in the show, what happened, happened. And everything matters.

Because of this, Toobworld Central can promote two possible connections to 'Doctor Who' - one of which occurred during an episode of 'Lost' and the other in an episode of 'Doctor Who' (the classic version).

Let's start with the one from 'Lost', even though the 'Doctor Who' part of the link aired first.
At the end of the two-part 'Doctor Who' episode "The Empty Child'/'The Doctor Dances', the 9th incarnation of the Doctor was dancing with his Companion Rose Tyler, with Captain Jack Harkness watching on the side (and ready to cut in with either one of them.) And the music they swayed to was "Moonlight Serenade" by the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

Somehow, as they raced forward in Time, the music heard inside the TARDIS leaked out and was picked up at two different points in the timestream.

First up, in the early 1960's, a very special radio was able to pick up the transmission from the TARDIS. This radio was in the attic of Ed Lindsay and it may have been magically attuned to picking up the music and entertainment and news programs from the past. Or it may have been triggered by the reception of "Moonlight Serenade" to receive those other programs.

Here's an IMDb description of that episode:
An old radio is taking bitter bachelor Ed Lindsay back to a happier time (before what he considers worthless tripe on television) when he starts picking up radio programs from the 1930's and 1940's. (There is the voice of a DJ announcing the song, however. This can be splained away though in that maybe the Doctor had locked in a radio transmission and even had it stored in the TARDIS computer. He may have had the original recording of the song in his databanks, but he might also have been a collector of that particular DJ's air checks, in much the same way my Iddiot friends collect the broadcasts of free-form legend Vin Scelsa's "Idiot's Delight Digest".)

But then the song showed up in the episode of 'Lost' entitled "The Long Con". Here's the Lostpedia entry about "Moonlight Serenade":

"The Long Con" – Hurley and Sayid were trying to find a signal on the Arrow radio, and instead found a radio braodcast which was playing the song. Sayid mentioned that the radio could be picking up signals from anywhere in the world. Hurley cleverly responds, "Or any time. Just kidding, dude."

But as it turns out, Hurley was right on the button. Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse confirmed in the Season 5 recap episode "Lost: A Journey in Time" that the radio broadcast was indeed from the 1940s and a product [of] time travel. (Also from that Lostpedia entry)

So I think it can be accepted that they were picking up on the TARDIS transmission of the Glen Miller classic.
And that's just one example in which 'Lost' and 'Doctor Who' crossed paths. As a Jedi master once said (which Hurley would appreciate): "There is another." And this one does begin with 'Doctor Who'.

The classic version of 'Doctor Who' began in 1963 and ended in 1989 with the 7th incarnation of the Doctor. We turn to the TARDIS Wiki entry for the episode "Survival":

Having already surmised that episode three of "Survival" was likely to at least be the last episode of Doctor Who for some time, and possibly the last ever, the programme's producer John Nathan-Turner decided close to transmission that a more suitable conclusion should be given to the final episode. To this end, script editor Andrew Cartmel wrote a short, melancholic closing monologue for actor Sylvester McCoy, which McCoy recorded on 23 November 1989, the day after Episode 1 was broadcast, and also by coincidence, the show's twenty-sixth anniversary:




"There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke, and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there’s injustice, and somewhere else the tea's getting cold! Come on, Ace — we’ve got work to do!"

This was dubbed over the closing scene as the Doctor and Ace walked off into the distance, apparently to further adventures. The Doctor Who production office at the BBC finally closed down in August 1990, having been in continuous operation since 1963.

"People made of smoke...." Well, it should be O'Bvious that the Doctor was referring to the smoke monster of the Island. "Smokey" was the spirit of "the Man in Black", transformed by the mystical properties of the Golden Light at the Center of the Island. It would usually manifest itself in its original human form, as the Man in Black, but as we saw over the course of the six seasons of 'Lost', it could take other forms as well. (We saw it manifest itself as Mr. Eko's brother Father Yemi, Jack's father Dr. Christian Shepherd, and of course as John Locke.)

So at some point in Time before the arrival of the 815 Survivors, one of the incarnations of the Doctor - any one of them from the First to the Seventh - had visited the Island in the TARDIS and experienced the Smoke Monster's ability to take the shape of someone from the Doctor's past (usually dead). It could have manifested itself as a Companion like Sarah Kingdom or Adric or as a villain like Omega. Perhaps even as one of his own earlier incarnations!

Whichever incarnation of the Doctor visited the Island, he was probably able to keep the Smoke Monster at bay with his sonic screwdriver. For some reason, the sonic fences used in Othersville and by Widmore's crew on his return to the Island kept the Locke-ness Monster from getting through. So since it wasn't very hooked on sonics, the Doctor's all-purpose sonic screwdriver would have made a nifty little defense weapon. (The Doctor would never consider it for tactical offense.)
Not that I will ever write the story, but this would make a great fanfic piece - the Doctor and the Man In Black (two characters who are nameless* to the general audience.) So if anybody out there wants to take a shot at it, be my guest. (And send me a copy when you finish it!)

[Thanks go out to Jim Mueller for the picture of the TARDIS & Smokey, and to Michael Cleary for 'Doctor Who' information... information... information.]

BCnU!

* Kristin Dos Santos of E! claims that originally the Man In Black's name was to be revealed as "Samuel".

CHUCKED OVER BY SERENDIPITEEVEE

I've mentioned in the past my "serendipiteevee", that fortuitous luck in which I can turn on the TV or surf the channels to land on something at just the right moment. It can be something I might use in writing about Toobworld, perhaps an historical, breaking story, or a once-in-a-lifetime image, or even a remark that could be taken out of context for humorous effect.

But serendipiteevee isn't always for the good. Like the time I sat down to watch an episode of 'The X-Files' the morning after its broadcast - I just took a mouthful of Cocoa Puffs just as some poor schlub in South America sucked in something that would ultimately kill him. The noise was so disgusting that I had to toss the bowl of cereal. Or there was the time I turned on the TV just in time to see Jason Alexander's ass with a little tail when HBO was showing "Shallow Hal".

The latest occurrence of dark serendipiteevee was Monday night. I was getting ready for work when 1010 WINS reported that the 'Law & Order' episode airing in an hour would be the last. I had forgotten about this, so I quickly turned on the TV to program my DVR. The set was tuned to NBC already, recording the two-hour season finale of 'Chuck'.... And it turned on just in time for me to hear Ellie talk about the major plot point at the end of the first hour. Arrrrrgh!

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: JOHN DEAN

JOHN DEAN

AS SEEN IN:
"Will: The Autobiography Of G. Gordon Liddy"

AS PLAYED BY:
Peter Ratray

From Wikipedia:
John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) was White House Counsel to United States President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. As White House Counsel, he became deeply involved in events leading up to the Watergate burglaries and the subsequent Watergate scandal cover up, even referred to as "master manipulator of the cover up" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was convicted of multiple felonies as a result of Watergate, and went on to become a key witness for the prosecution, resulting in a reduction of his time in prison.

Dean is currently an author, columnist, and commentator on contemporary politics, strongly critical of conservatism and the Republican Party, and a registered Independent who supported impeachment of President George W. Bush.

Although I found plenty of screen captures of Martin Sheen as John Dean in "Blind Ambition", I chose not to save Dean for Two For Tuesday. Sheen is just too closely identified with JFK, RFK, and Jed Bartlet, and there was no attempt made to make him look more like Dean.

BCnU!

TARGET GOES ON A TRIPLE BENDER

I would have thought that the series finale of 'Lost' would have spurred advertisers to bring their best to the game; but apparently only Target stepped up to the plate to provide the best possible blipverts during the course of the show.

All three of their commercials had 'Lost' themes, and all of them were directed by Jack Bender, who also directed the night's two and a half hour finale.

Here's the first one that aired:




I guess it was funny to everybody except animal lovers and vegetarians.....

And with the second one, we got a nice shout-out to "the Numbers":




I wonder if that price was adjusted specifically to tie in to the show...?

And then finally, they saved the best for last, with a special guest appearance:



Keep this in mind for the future, should you ever find yourself in a bar and need a good trivia question to win a few bucks - "Did 'Lost' ever have a spin-off?" The answer would be yes; just remind them of this commercial!

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD: ART LINKLETTER

From the Associated Press:
Art Linkletter, who hosted the popular TV shows "People Are Funny" and "House Party" in the 1950s and 1960s, has died. He was 97.

His son-in-law Art Hershey says Linkletter died Wednesday at his home in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles.

"Art Linkletter's House Party," one of television's longest-running variety shows, debuted on radio in 1944 and was seen on CBS-TV from 1952 to 1969.

Though it had many features, the best known was the daily interviews with schoolchildren.

"On `House Party' I would talk to you and bring out the fact that you had been letting your boss beat you at golf over a period of months as part of your campaign to get a raise," Linkletter wrote.

"All the while, without your knowledge, your boss would be sitting a few feet away listening, and at the appropriate moment, I would bring you together," he said. "Now, that's funny, because the laugh arises out of a real situation."

Linkletter collected sayings from the children into "Kids Say The Darndest Things," and it sold in the millions. The book "70 Years of Best Sellers 1895-1965" ranked "Kids Say the Darndest Things" as the 15th top seller among nonfiction books in that period.

The primetime "People Are Funny," which began on radio in 1942 and ran on TV from 1954 to 1961, emphasized slapstick humor and audience participation — things like throwing a pie in the face of a contestant who couldn't tell his Social Security number in five seconds, or asking him to go out and cash a check written on the side of a watermelon.

[In] 1969, his 20-year-old daughter, Diane, jumped to her death from her sixth-floor Hollywood apartment. He blamed her death on LSD use, but toxicology tests found no LSD in her body after she died.

After leaving daily broadcasting in 1969, Linkletter continued to write, lecture and appear in television commercials.

"I'm an optimist. Even though I've had tragedies in my life, and I've seen a lot of difficult things, I still am an optimist." It's always been planned that eventually Art Linkletter would be inducted into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame as a member of the League of Themselves. According to the IMDb, he's the only person in TV history to have five shows concurrently on network TV, although they don't list them. And I'm too lazy to do it. But among his shows were:

"Kids Say the Darndest Things"

"Hollywood Talent Scouts"

"The Art Linkletter Show"

"Startime" (At least the episode "The Secret World of Kids"

"House Party"

"Life with Linkletter"

But he also made appearances as his televersion, mostly in sitcoms, to qualify even without his own more reality-based shows:

"Small Wonder"
- Come Fly with Me (1988)

"Here's Lucy"
- Lucy Loses Her Cool (1970)

"Batman"
- Catwoman Goes to College (1967)

"The Lucy Show"
- Lucy and Art Linkletter (1966)

"The Bob Cummings Show"

- Bob vs. Linkletter (1959)

"The Jack Benny Show"
- Peggy King & Art Linkletter (1955)

Mr. Linkletter also contributed several other characters for the Tele-Folks Directory of Toobworld on shows like 'The Red Skelton Show', 'Wagon Train', 'Zane Grey Theater', several episodes of 'General Electric Theater' and even 'The Christophers' (in which he may have portrayed George Washington). He also appeared in movies, like 'Champagne For Caesar' which dealt with the world of TV. (If I'm not mistaken, Linkletter's role of Happy Hogan was the host of a game show.)

(Here's Art Linkletter as Sam Darland in "The Sam Darland Story" as seen on 'Wagon Train'. The boy on the far right was only identified as "Johnny", played by Robert "Rusty" Stevens. Johnny could be the ancestor of Larry Mondello of 'Leave It To Beaver.')

Art Linkletter's life was full of tragedy (He survived three of his five children, one of whom was the daughter who leaped out of a window in 1969.), but that didn't stop him from filling his life with meaning by helping others and making us smile along the way. He deserves the chance to rest now.

Good night and may God bless.

BCnU......

COINKYDINKS AND YOU

I just got back into 'Flash-Forward' with the two-hour return from that ill-advised hiatus. (Nice going, ABC suits!)

In it, Lindsay Crouse guest-starred as Mrs. Kirby, the mother of one of the main characters. And at one point she said: "What some people would call coincidence, is really God at work."

I think that's a line that could apply to 'Lost'. The numbers, Apollo candy bars, the various characters running into each other before they were brought together on Oceanic Flight 815......

And with an ending like that to the show, I think the case is made that there is a higher power at work in the small details. And I don't need to be touched by an angel to believe that....

BCnU!

LAW & ORDER: SVU (SPIDER VENOM UNIT?)

From Robert Wronski, Jr. one of my fellow fans of crossovers: In an episode of SVU today (a rerun, unfortunately forget the episode name), Det. Stabler postulates that only Spider-Man could have committed the crime, since it required the killer to come in through a window 80 stories high. Olivia spots proof the killer did come in from the window, and Det. Stabler says that it looked as though it was indeed Spider-Man after all.

According to Robert, there was no mention of Spiderman as a comic book, cartoon, or movie character. Therefore it could be safe to assume that Eliot was talking about Spidey as a real person. And so we could make a theoretical link to 'The Amazing Spiderman' series from the 1970's, which starred Nicholas Hammond as Peter Parker. BCnU!

THE LOST HITCH-HIKER

Even though 'Lost' ended on Sunday night, more mysteries were introduced in those final 2½ hours. One of these was: who originally put that stopper in the ground to plug the hole, so that the Well of Golden Light could fill up again? And who carved all those symbols on that stopper? That's an easy one to answer, actually. It was the race of planet-builders known as the Magratheans, who were building the planet Earth to the specifications of the super-computer Deep Thought (as seen in 'The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy'). The Earth was going to be a super-computer as well, more powerful than Deep Thought, who would supply the question to the ultimate answer of Life, the Universe, and Everything - which was "42". When Desmond pulled the stopper out of the ground, the super-computer basically shut down. Jack had to replace the rock stopper in order to reboot the system. And for the Creationists out there, I've got you covered. God created the original Earth, its twin planet Mondas (as seen in 'Doctor Who'.)

For those who might point out that the planet Earth was destroyed in the first episode of 'The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy', you must remember that Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect were thrown back in Time to the age of the cavemen. And their interference in the planet's original programming - along with all of the other programming viruses like alien invasions - tweaked the Toobworld timeline so that eventually the Vogons never received any orders to destory the planet in order to make room for a hyperspace bypass.

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: TSAR NICHOLAS II

TSAR NICHOLAS II

AS SEEN IN:
"Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna"

AS PLAYED BY:
Omar Sharif

From Wikipedia:
Nicholas II (Nikolay Alexandrovich Romanov) (18 May 1868 – 17 July 1918) was the last Tsar of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is currently regarded as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. His reign saw Imperial Russia go from being one of the foremost great powers of the world to an economic and military disaster.

BCnU!

ONE LAST WARNING: WE SPEAK "LOST" FINALE HERE

I O'Bserved 24 hours (basically) of a moratorium on anything related to 'Lost' after the finale. But I plan to start up with posts about it now. Therefore let this post serve as your warning that at any moment once you come back to visit there might be some revelation about the end of the show.

Just sayin', is all.....

BCnU!

I'll also post this warning as the final post of the day for Tuesday.......

WITH THE END OF "LOST", A LOOK AT "THE SOPRANOS"

On the day before the "Lost" series finale, the NY Times posted an overview of the series and said:

The show had one good season, its first. It was very, very good — as good as anything on television at the time — but none of the seasons since have approached that level, and the current sixth season, rushed, muddled and dull, has been the weakest. (written by Mike Hale)
Not that I agree with him, but in that opinion, I was reminded of 'The Sopranos'. If David Chase had ended that series with the first year, with Tony killing his Mom with the pillow in the retirement home and either getting away with it or getting led away in cuffs. (Not that it was ever likely - the cops were worthless in the Sopranos' world.)

But instead, the show continued on and with the death of Nancy Marchand, there was a loss of that focus on the mother-son dynamic that made the show different. I knew people who thereafter were only watching it to see how people (and which ones) got whacked each week. You could get that in any mobster movie.

And Chase even started to cannibalize his own plots from past TV shows to keep the beast fed. For instance, the two low-level goombahs who tried to kill Christopher so that they could get in good with Tony? That was lifted straight out of an episode of 'The Rockford Files'.

By the end of 'The Sopranos', I was going through the motions, watching it just to get to the finale and see how it all ended. But it was a case of diminishing returns with each passing season, more a collection of great moments and excellent episodes rather than being great as a whole. And of course, the very ending just really ruined it for me.
I realize I'll be in the minority on that opinion. So be it.

BCnU!

THE ALTERNATE ENDINGS OF "LOST"

Here are three alternate endings to 'Lost' which were presented on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' after the finale of 'Lost' Sunday night.




And now, here's the nitpick from Toobworld Central.....

I wouldn't have repeated anybody in any of the three endings. For instance, around the campfire in the 'Survivors' ending should have been Lapidus, Miles, Sawyer, and Sayid, but not Hurley - save him for the 'Sopranos' ending. Claire and Kate should have switched places: Kate in the 'Sopranos' ending and Claire in the 'Newhart' ending. That way, when Bob screamed out for Emily, Emilie would have been the one under the blankets. And Bob could have said instead: "You're not MY Emily."

But that's just me. These were funny without any stupid tinkering on my part. And Bob Newhart (as Bob Hartley) and Jeff Probst ratcheted up points for themselves when it comes to the TV Crossover Hall of Fame. Dr. Hartley is already inducted, but Jeff could make it in as a member of the League of Themselves.

BCnU!

PARALLEL SNARKING

Years ago I visited a random response generator at QuizGalaxy.com. (I don't even know if the site even exists still, let alone the specific quiz. And I'm too lazy to find out.)

There was one for what happens after you die, and this was the response I got:

AFTER YOU DIE... PARALLEL UNIVERSE

After death, you will continue to exist as if nothing has ever happened. You will continue to be yourself, but because you are in a parallel universe, some things will be different. You may not have married the same person, you might live in a different spot, but you will be the same person underneath it all and you will continue your life unaware that you ever died.

I think "Darlton Cuselof" used that same response as inspiration for Season 6......

BCnU!

THERE BE "LOST" SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

I O'Bserved 24 hours (basically) of a moratorium on anything related to 'Lost' after the finale. But I plan to start up with posts about it now. Therefore let this post serve as your warning that at any moment once you come back to visit there might be some revelation about the end of the show.

Just sayin', is all.....

BCnU!

I'll move this warning up to the final post of the day for Tuesday.......

AS SEEN ON TV: EDNA BUCHANAN

Referring back to the anniversary of Elizabeth Montgomery's death last week, here is a character she played in two TV movies.....

EDNA BUCHANAN

AS SEEN IN:
"The Corpse Had a Familiar Face"
"Deadline for Murder: From the Files of Edna Buchanan"

AS PLAYED BY:
Elizabeth Montgomery

From Wikipedia:
Edna Buchanan (born 1939) is an American journalist and author best known for her crime mystery novels. She was born in Paterson, New Jersey and attended Montclair State College. She was one of the first female crime reporters in Miami as she reported for the Miami Beach Daily Sun and the Miami Herald as a general assignment and police-beat reporter. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for general reporting.

Her book "Miami, It's Murder" was nominated for an Edgar Award in 1995. Two for Tuesday! (as in movies this time...)

BCnU!

"FRINGE" - "OVER THERE, PART TWO"

Here's the opening credits for the second season finale of 'Fringe':




BCnU!

RED PHASED

For the season finale, the opening credits were changed so that they would reflect life in the alternate universe - throughout the episode there was a "red" motif, to the point where one might have thought it was the world of 'The Mentalist'. (For instance: there were comic books about the super-heroes Red Arrow and Red Lantern.)

As such, the opening credits were tinted red instead of the usual green with blue highlights.

But there was one other change in those credits:
"First People" - I think we have a clue to one of the plot-lines for next season. Could it be that in the alternate universe they have definite proof of alien visitation to their world? Or maybe it's a reference to the main Toobworld being the original dimension? Or was there a separate line of evolution that didn't die out and developed alongside homo sapien?

BCnU!