THE MAGISTER REGISTRY

Those are scenes from 'True Blood' and 'Lost', both featuring the actor Zeljko Ivanek. Don't think they're connected? Then you've never read an Inner Toob Theory of Relateeveety before!

In less than three seasons, ‘True Blood’ has provided a rich registry of secondary characters populating the town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. It even goes deeper with the tertiary characters, those who only appear on a recurring basis.

One of these, and the focus of this post, is The Magister.

According to a ‘True Blood’ wiki, The Magister was born in 1462 and was turned into a vampire against his will in 1525. It’s now his mission in “life” to act as the judge in matters involving the laws and codes of vampiric life.Supposedly The Magister’s name was Magnus, and he claimed to have been active in the Inquisition. That ‘True Blood’ wiki did some research for me on that subject:

Historically, the only Inquisition going on during his human life was the Spanish Inquisition which started in 1478 and ended in 1834. This Inquisition was under the control of the Spanish monarchy who used Spanish clergy to carry it out. Logically it follows that Magnus would have had to [have] been a member of the Spanish clergy then, specifically a member of the Catholic priesthood.

His name doesn’t have to be actually Magnus; he may have changed it over the centuries. To me, it just smacks of a Germanic background and not exactly the kind of name to be borne by a Spanish priest. But he could have been from a Bavarian order, whose expertise in the ways of torture were sought by his Spanish brethren in the Church.

Although there are vows of celibacy laid upon the clergy, we know even in modern times that those vows aren't strictly upheld. (Boy! Do we know about that!) It's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that Magnus sired at least one child before he was embraced into the kindred of vampires.

And from that child, a lineage could have been established which down through the centuries spread the branches of Magnus' family tree far and wide. And if we were to assume that Magnus had "agarnistic" DNA - that is, capable of creating multiple copies of an exact strand, then we have seen several of his descendants since the mid-1990's.

Among those with a large presence in Toobword who might be part of the Magnus family tree:
Blake Sterling - 'The Event'
We don't know anything officially about him yet, - he's an adviser to the President in some way - as 'The Event' will be one of the Fall offerings on NBC. (And by "officially", I mean what's been broadcast, not what is written up by the Peacock promo people.) But we do know this - with Blair Underwood playing the President, this is in some other TV dimension.
Ray Fiske - 'Damages'
A lawyer who worked closely with Patty Hewes. Even if the show hadn't been canceled, we wouldn't have seen much of him anymore anyway.....

JJ Percy Walker - 'Big Love'
Head of the polygamous cult in Kansas with a secret plan to revive the eugenics threat of the late 1990's (as seen in 'Star Trek'). Don't worry - one of his wives made sure that wasn't going to happen.

Emile Danko - 'Heroes'
AKA "The Hunter" Although 'Heroes' was in its own dimension by the end of the series' run, it started off in Earth Prime-Time. So there must have been a Danko in the main Toobworld, and there may still be one......
ASA Ed Danvers - 'Homicide: Life On The Street' & 'Law & Order' & "Homicide: The Movie"
A future member of the TV Crossover Hall of Fame!
Governor James Devlin - 'Oz'
I don't think we ever learned the governor's home state, but it could be he and Ed Danvers were related. (BTW - that's not my mistake in the picture......)

Sammy Wheaton - 'Edge of Night'
Another character who's no longer around - he was found murdered in 1982.


And then there are the recurring and one-shot roles:

Elliott Dasher - 'Shark'

Edmund Burke - 'Lost'
"House M.D." .... Jason

"The Mentalist" .... Dr. Linus Wagner

"Numb3rs" .... William Fraley

"Queens Supreme" .... Carl Sipple

"Cold Case" .... John Doe

"Bones" .... Carl Decker

"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" .... Everett Drake
"The Inside" .... Teddy Bunch

"CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" .... Andrew Melton

"NYPD Blue" .... Justin Deroos

"Law & Order"
- Gov Love (2004) TV episode .... Richard Kaplan
- American Dream (1993) TV episode .... Phillip Swann
(No idea why somebody didn't recognize these two men as looking like Ed Danvers.)

"The Jury" .... Mason Garvey

"Touching Evil" .... Ronald Hinks

"The West Wing" .... Steve Atwood NO!

"The Practice" .... D.A. Mark McGovern

"The Twilight Zone" .... ER Chief

"24" .... Andre Drazen NO!

"Crossing Jordan" .... Dr. Elliot McCafferty

"The Job" .... Peter

"ER" .... Bruce Resnick

"Trinity" .... Tim Holloway

"Players" .... Eduard Micah

"Ally McBeal" .... Judge Marshal Pink

"C-16: FBI" .... Loren Bitts

"Total Security" .... Ronald Ducote

"Millennium" .... Dr. Daniel 'Danny' Miller

"Frasier" .... Dr. Arnold Shaw

"Chicago Hope" .... Eugene Ramsey

"Murder, She Wrote" .... Eddie Saunders

"If Not for You" .... Elliot Gordon

"The X-Files" .... Dr. Arthur Grable & Roland

"L.A. Law" .... Joel Lassen

"St. Elsewhere" .... Mark Dolson

What all these characters have in common in the real world is that they were all played by Zeljko Ivanek.
After so many centuries, the Magnus bloodline would be so diffuse that none of these characters could really claim to be related to each other - save for the evidence of how strong that DNA chain was, as demonstrated by their similar physical features.

I decided to eliminate from consideration all of the TV movies, as well as the historical characters. Even though fictional characters have been related to real people in the past, using historical figures like John Dickinson, Eddie Jacobsen, and Bobby Kennedy (pictured) just leaves this theory open to the pozz'bility of Zonks. As for the TV movies, the same tendency towards Zonks could happen, but they're still a vital part of the Toobworld mosaic. In some cases, they could also be transferred over to Earth Prime-Time/MOTW, in which their line of succession for the American presidency can all be found in the movies of the week.

Besides Blake Sterling of the upcoming 'The Event', two other characters were eliminated for consideration to be descended from Magnus: Andre Drazen of '24' and Steve Atwood of 'The West Wing'. Both of those shows take place in their own TV dimensions and don'tnecessarily share all of the same characters. 'Heroes' also took place in another TV dimension, but not until Future Hiro went back in Time to warn Peter on the subway. After that, the series followed a different timeline in a new dimension, which ultimately had a different President of the United States than to be found in Toobworld and the real world.

Several of these men, the "children" of Magnus, are no longer with us - JJ Percy Walker, Ray Fiske, and Edmund Burke come to mind; and several others have gained either prominence in the press or notoriety in law enforcement circles. Sooner or later, some of them must have noticed that they had "twins" elsewhere in the world. This works to the advantage of The Magister, who can freely operate in a society that would attribute his rare appearances in public to one of the many humans in his family tree.

Finally, here's a little musical tribute to the many characters played by Zeljko Ivanek.....



BCnU!

This is going out to my buddy, Mark, a big fan of the Magister......

FAIRCHILD: NO FOUL

Because 'Persons Unknown' is pretty much centered around the ghost town in which the main characters have found themselves held captive, there doesn't seem to be much chance to find connections to other shows (save for theories of relateeveety.) Similarities to 'The Prisoner' don't count, by the way. (It also reminds me of a movie from the 1970's, "Chosen Survivors".)

Of course, that all might change by the end of the summer when all will be revealed.

If anything, there's a good pozz'bility that the whole enterprise might end up riddled with Zonks, those discrepancies that shatter the illusion of the Television Universe.

One of these could have been the introduction of James Read as the American Ambassador to Italy, Franklin Fairchild. After all, if a different president can send 'Flash-Forward' into an alternate TV dimension, shouldn't this be a factor in removing 'Persons Unknown' from Earth Prime-Time?

No, and the reason will probably be an insult to the U.S.A.'s ambassadors around the world and to the diplomatic corps in general, not to mention to the country's legislative branch.

Everybody knows (or they should, if they're smarter than a fifth grader) that Barack Obama is the President of the United States. And they knew that George W. Bush was his predecessor - much as they'd like to forget. (Partisan much, Toby?) TV shows - dramas and sitcoms alike - will either make reference to the current Commander-in-Chief or poke fun at him. (It was during the Clinton administration when this trait seemed to reach its zenith.) To maintain consistency in Toobworld, every show in Earth Prime-Time must share the same POTUS and the same Veep.

(The Vice President is why 'Flash-Forward' had to be cut loose, even before we met President David Santiago. We learned in the first episode that Air Force Two had crashed during the blackout on October 6, 2009, and that the Vice President died. Since that didn't happen to Joe Biden, then 'Flash-Forward' is not of Earth Prime-Time.)

But when you get down to cabinet positions, senators and congressmen, most governors and mayors, and of course, ambassadors, the rules - like most of Toobworld - are in flux.

To Tell The Truth: Can you name the current Ambassador to Italy from the United States? I couldn't, until I googled him: David Thorne.

Thorne.... Is Life imitating Art? Could we have a potential "Omen" situation in the future?

Anyhoo.

David Thorne isn't likely to be making a big impact on other TV shows, like President Obama would. So, there's no threat of a Zonk in having Franklin Fairchild rather than David Thorne as the Ambassador to Italy in Toobworld.

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: PRINCE PHILIP

PRINCE PHILLIP

AS SEEN IN:
"Whatever Love Means"

AS PLAYED BY:
Peter Egan

From Wikipedia:
The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philippos of Greece and Denmark; born 10 June 1921) is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II.

He was born into the Greek and Danish royal families, but his family was exiled from Greece when he was a child. At the age of 18, he joined the British Royal Navy, in which he served during World War II, even though two of his German brothers-in-law fought on the opposing side. After the war, in March 1947, he renounced his titles, adopted the surname of his British maternal grandparents, Mountbatten, and used the style "Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten". Later that year, he married Princess Elizabeth, the heir to the British throne.

On his marriage, he was granted the style of His Royal Highness and the title of Duke of Edinburgh by his father-in-law King George VI. When Elizabeth became Queen in 1952, Philip left his naval career to act as her consort. His wife made him a Prince of the United Kingdom in 1957. He is Britain's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning monarch.

His televersion is seen here with his daughter, Princess Anne.....

BCnU!

PIERCE NAYS

Earlier I mentioned President Franklin Pierce as an ancestor to Ryan Pierce, a character on 'The West Wing'. Here's what a 'West Wing' web site had to say about that idea:

Could Ryan Pierce be descended from Franklin Pierce as Donna says in "The Dogs of War"? Leigh Cox emailed us on this:

"In the episode last night (October 1, 2003), they introduced a new character, an intern in Josh¹s office. His name is Ryan Pierce, and he noted on the program that he was the great-great grandson of Franklin Pierce. This could not be true! President Franklin Pierce and his wife Jane Appleton Pierce had three sons, all of whom passed away in childhood. Therefore, Franklin Pierce had no grandchildren and could not be the great-great grandfather of this character on The West Wing."

Of course, Leigh Cox forgets that 'The West Wing' isn't reality; it's TV. And it's not even in the main Toobworld, but in its own dimension shared with 'Mr. Sterling', 'Smallville', and perhaps the remake of 'Battlestar Galactica'.

In that world, it's quite possible for the sons of Franklin Pierce to have survived to adulthood and fathered children of their own.....

BCnU!

HG WELLS THROWS AROUND IDEAS LIKE A GIRL

The second season premiere of 'Warehouse 13' brought in a new villain, which sadly also got rid of the recurring baddie from last year, former Warehouse agent MacPherson. That's a shame because Roger Rees is one of my favorites and he makes for a great ne'er-do-well who's both dastardly and charming.

Anyhoo, the new villain is HG Wells, who had been locked away in the Warehouse, bronzed to keep her imprisoned all these years.

That's right - I said "her". In this show, HG Wells was a woman. She claimed that the HG Wells seen in all those photographs was actually her brother Charles. Charles took the credit while she did all the work. As a result, HG Wells (I believe she said her first name was "Hannah".) was one bleeped-off feminist when she finally escaped her imprisonment.

At first I thought the idea was a charming challenge for Toobworld, one that could be simply splained away: Any time we met the male HG Wells in a fictional setting - 'Timecop', 'Lois Clark', 'Doctor Who' - we were actually seeing Charles Wells, who had come to believe that he was THE HG Wells.

But then that negates "The Infinite Worlds Of H.G. Wells" in which Tom Ward played the author and which provided an imaginative look at his fictional life in Toobworld.

Still there's an easy way out of this, a splainin that will keep 'Warehouse 13' in Earth Prime-Time.

She lied.

Oh, she's HG Wells, alright. The people who've run the Warehouse through the years would never have labelled her bronzed storage as such in the computer system otherwise. But her whole back-story was provided by her and as it often happens in Toobworld, Mika and Pete believed what she told them. (And to me, it did look like she was hesitating every so often as she quickly ran through her story about providing the ideas for the stories and that Charles provided the mustache.)

I never figured on it being so hard to find out biographical details about the real HG Wells online. Every source I checked never said anything about his siblings, other than there were four children in his family. As to their names? Apparently they weren't worth mentioning. So whether or not HG Wells had a brother named Charles, I couldn't verify that. I don't even know if he had any sisters, one of whom I could have claimed was Hannah. (Even if that wasn't really her name, we could have said that her tele-version changed it.)

But there was an outlet for keeping this fictional character in the Wells family and we can thank HG Wells for that - because "the Man Who Invented The Future" couldn't keep it in his pants.

HG Wells had a succession of mistresses and he even insisted to both of his wives that he had the right to have them. Among his conquests were author Rebecca West, by whom he had a son, and feminist/abortion advocate Margaret Sanger. Various online sources claim that Wells fathered at least five illegitimate children. "At least five" - that means there could have been others, including Hannah.

Real life people have been shown to be related to fictional characters in the past in Toobworld:

Art Carney - cousin to Vera on 'Alice'

Tim Russert - cousin to Megan Russert on 'Homicide: Life On The Street'

Josiah Bartlet - ancestor of President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet on 'West Wing'

Franklin Pierce - ancestor of Ryan Pierce on 'West Wing'

Mark Hamill - distantly related to Luke Skywalker, as mentioned on 'The Muppet Show'

So it wouldn't be a problem to add one more kid to the collection of HG Wells.

Even if she wasn't lying about having a brother named Charles, she would still have been lying about having written the novels credited to her "father". (If Charles existed, he was probably a half-brother on either side of her parentage.)

But she could still lay claim to the incredible inventions like the anti-gravity beam and the imperceptor vest. So this HG Wells looks to be a formidable adversary for the 'Warehouse 13' team.

She's just not the author of "The War Of Worlds" and "The Time Machine"......

I wonder if she ever got the chance to meet Dr. Miguelito Loveless before she got bronzed? I bet they would have been great friends - at least until one of them became jealous of the other's scientific achievements, that is.

BCnU!

TOOBWORLD AND THE WAR OF THE WORLDS

While investigating the escape of HG Wells from ‘Warehouse 13’, Agent Pete Lattimer sang the praises of “The War Of The Worlds. Not the book, but the movie. And not the original movie, but the remake directed by Steven Spielberg.


"Tom Cruise was awesome..." Pete sang out.


This was great news for Toobworld Central, because the original movie version has been absorbed into the TV Universe - due to the TV series being a sequel. Since none of the original characters needed to be "replicated" in Toobworld, we don't have to consider them as separate entities (as we would have done with movies like "M*A*S*H" or "TheAddams Family").

The Spielberg version can be said to be based on the novel (just as Orson Welles' radio play was), whereas the original movie was an actual event that just happened to share many of the same qualities of the book - the shape of the alien spacecraft, the ultimate doom of the aliens, etc. Because it occurred so long after the book was published, the event gained the nickname of 'War Of The Worlds' as an easy reference point with which everyone would be familiar. (In much the same way that "Ground Zero" was appropriated from its original definition, and how all political scandals since Watergate now have "-gate" added as a suffix.)

As to HG Wells actually being a woman..... Fear not, Toob Believers, I'm working on that.....


BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: LORD MOUNTBATTEN

1st EARL OF MOUNTBATTEN

AS SEEN IN:

"Whatever Love Means"

AS PLAYED BY:

Richard Johnson

From Wikipedia:

Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas George Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC, FRS, né Prince Louis of Battenberg (25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979) was a British Admiral of the Fleet and statesman of German descent, and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He was the last Viceroy of the British Indian Empire (1947) and the first Governor-General of the independent Union of India (1947–48), from which the modern Republic of India would emerge in 1950. From 1954 until 1959 he was the First Sea Lord, a position that had been held by his father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, some forty years earlier. In 1979 Mountbatten was assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), who planted a bomb in his fishing boat, the Shadow V, at Mullaghmore, County Sligo in the Republic of Ireland.

Mountbatten was a strong influence in the upbringing of his great-nephew, The Prince of Wales, and later as a mentor—"Honorary Grandfather" and "Honorary Grandson", they fondly called each other according to the Jonathan Dimbleby biography of the Prince—though according to both the Ziegler biography of Mountbatten and the Dimbleby biography of the Prince the results may have been mixed.

BCnU!

THE CANCELLED TV SHOW LOVE SONG

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Χάρι Rob για να δείξει που έξω.

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: HEWITT & PRINCESS DI

Since it's so hot, and we've had a bit of a run on the Royal Family here in the "As Seen On TV" feature, why not turn our attention to something a bit steamy?

JAMES HEWITT & PRINCESS DIANA

AS SEEN IN:
"Princess In Love"

AS PLAYED BY:
Hewitt: Christopher Villiers
Princess Diana: Julie Cox

From Wikipedia:

James Hewitt (born 1958), a former British household cavalry officer in the British Army, had an affair with Diana, Princess of Wales for five years. He received extensive media coverage after revealing details of the affair.

Diana, Princess of Wales, admitted in her Panorama interview that she had committed adultery with Hewitt. As Diana was then the wife of the Prince of Wales, heir to the throne, Hewitt had committed high treason, as such an affair is proscribed by the Treason Act 1351. The affair ended in 1992.

It was speculated that Hewitt is the biological father of Prince Harry, but Hewitt has denied it, saying to The Sunday Mirror that "When I met Diana, he was already a toddler." Ken Wharfe, a police bodyguard for Diana, has also pointed out the time discrepancy, and noted that Hewitt's and the Prince's often-compared red hair is also very common in Harry's maternal Spencer family line. It has been claimed that Diana performed a blood test on Harry to end speculation but results were never published. There has even been a plot to steal some of Harry's hair for the same purpose.

BCnU!

CLOSURE TIME

Every so often, TV characters appear - or they're just mentioned - who are never actually named. We never do find out who they really were. Many times this occurs with the deceased. The creators of that particular show never see a reason to give any more background to the character than that they're dead.

And that's just fine with Toobworld Central. It gives us an opportunity to fill in the blanks, and thus come up with hypothetical links between shows that would otherwise never be connected. Plus it gives us the chance to clear out the dead wood - as we did with long unseen TV characters in the TV production of "The Poseidon Adventure" and even in real life tragedies like the WTC collapse and Hurrican Katrina.

In the latest episode of 'Lie To Me', Cal Lightman faced off against a serial killer student at one of the local universities. Martin Walker was a 25 year old grad student who would repeatedly drown his victims and then bring them back to life before finally burying their bodies in the woods. When he was finally arrested, four bodies were found of girls he had murdered. (All of this stemmed from when he was five years old, when he let his older sister drown just so he could get her bike.) Those four young women were never named, and so even though it's a morbid thought process, I saw it as an opportunity to bring closure to some TV characters who would otherwise probably never be seen again in Toobworld.

They would be young women, no more than 30 years of age, and I figure Martin didn't begin his actual killing spree until five years ago at most. (Although one of my candidates was last seen six years ago in Toobworld, I think her unseen TV life continued through undergraduate studies and into grad school.)

Here are the four I'm going to suggest:

Top row: Ashley Nakahino, Hanna Malone (with her father)

Bottom row: Kylie, Lilith Sandstrom

Ashley Nakahino, 'E-Ring'

Ashley would have been 30 in 2010. She was last seen in Toobworld in 2006. As a military employee of the Pentagon, Ms. Nakahino would have reason to be in the Washington, DC, area where 'Lie To Me' takes place. It's possible that Martin Walker employed the same "accidental" coffee spill to make his first approach in meeting her.

Hanna Malone, 'Without A Trace'

She looks young in this picture with her dad, FBI Agent Jack Malone, but Hanna would have been 18 in 2010. As such, she could have been a freshman at that same university which Martin was attending. She was last seen in Toobworld in 2009.

Kylie, 'One Tree Hill'

As far as I could tell in my research, we never learn her last name. I'm not even sure of what type of accent she had, considering the actress was English. For alls I know, she may have been going for that one-name status like Cher or Madonna.

Kylie was an actress and she would have been 22 in 2010. She made a commercial with Nathan for Rainstorm Body Spray and that may have been the reason why she was in the District of Columbia. Perhaps she was going to make another commercial; this time on the university campus where she could have met Martin. She was last seen in February of 2010.

Lilith Sandstrom, 'ReGenesis'

Originally from Toronto, where her father worked at the NorBAC research center, Lilith would have been 21 in 2010 (since she was being played two years younger than the actress, Ellen Page). Smarter than her years, she might have come south to the United States in order to continue her college studies, and may have been a fellow grad student like Martin Walker. She was last seen just before Christmas of 2004 and never returned for the second season of the series. It's not likely we'd ever see her again, even if the show was still in production - I'm sure Ellen Page is far too busy nowadays. So Lilith makes a strong candidate to be one of the murder victims.

Seems a bit crass to just bump off these young ladies like that, but hey, that's life in TV Land. Or the lack thereof.....

BCnU!

PS:

This post is going out to my co-worker Margaret, who has just discovered this TV series.....

NORFOLK WHO'S WHO

In a third season episode of 'Kingdom', Terry was upset because Geraldine Merrick was going to destroy the crop circles that had mysteriously... um... cropped up in her wheat field outside of Market Shipborough. But his lawyer, Peter Kingdom, said that it would be impossible to stop her. After all, it was her land.

Not that Terry was deterred. As he told his son, "Would that stop the Doctor?"

If it had been left at that, we might have been able to dismiss his comment as being about the general practitioner for that area of Norfolk. But because of later circumstances, we have to accept that he was referring to the Gallifreyan Time Lord who is known only as "The Doctor".

NOT as "Doctor Who" - that's the name of the TV show that was created with the backing of UNIT to cover up the activities of the Doctor in real life. Like the dismissal of UFO sightings as being weather balloons or swamp gas, complaints made about the Doctor could be shrugged off as a vivid imagination combined with the TV show and a few pints. (This project began with several movies starring Peter Cushing as a character actually named "Doctor Who".)

Back when the Doctor still looked like a gangly Mancunian in a jumpsuit, back in his ninth incarnation, he gave Mickey Smith a computer disk containing a program that would wipe out all mention of the Doctor from internet and computer memory storage units all over the world. But it's apparent that Mickey never bothered to put the program into action; or at best it didn't matter in the end, because there was no way to erase him from the memories of those people who already knew of him.

There would be thousands of people who would have remembered the Cybermen invasion of London, others in outlying villages across the country who remembered when the Doctor came to the rescue when their hamlets were attacked by Daemons or Axions.

Since Terry was such a fanatic about such alien invasions - he surely would have remembered when the Visitors nearly took over the world in the early 1980's, as well as when the giant Canamids dropped by for lunch - he would have learned about the Doctor long before that computer program had a chance to spread its virus. So Toobworld Central accepts that he was referring to the Doctor. As for those circumstances that occurred later in the episode, Peter Kingdom and Ms. Merrick, along with Detective Constable Yelland, had a close encounter with a man wandering through those wheat-fields dressed as the fourth incarnation of the Doctor, complete with fifteen foot long scarf and a packet of jelly babies. It was the first sign of a different sort of invasion - that of the UFO enthusiasts (many of whom would later travel to Calfiornia for another fruitless gathering, as seen on 'Monk'). Among those fanatics, somebody used the Orkan catch-phrase "Nanu, Nanu," which we refuse to accept as a Zonk - that is, as a discrepancy. "Nanu Nanu" probably became known and absorbed into the English language after the existence of Mork was made known to the general public. Having a child by an Earth-woman, a boy named Mearth who would be publicly aging backwards, probably put the kibosh on Mork's hope to remain anonymous.

As with all such revelations in Toobworld, like the eventual one for 'The Munsters' family or for the Melmacian who was code-named 'ALF", there must have been the inevitabe sensation in the media about it (although unseen by the Trueniverse audience). Eventually however, the novelty passed and for the most part that guy from Ork, 'Mork & Mindy', his Terran wife, faded from people's memories, in much the same way as happened with the Eugenics Wars of the late 1990's.

As Terry would come to say during the episode, "In an infinite universe, anything is possible."

BCnU!

LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN

According to the weather widget on my computer, the temperature as of 2:30 pm Tuesday, here in the real world, is 102º. (That's Fahrenheit, by the way; Toobworld Central refuses to go metric.)

So I thought it was as good a time as any to slide over to an alternate TV dimension in which the Earth came to an end back in the early 1960's.......

'THE TWILIGHT ZONE'
"THE MIDNIGHT SUN"

PART ONE


PART TWO


PART THREE


BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: ELIZABETH II x 5

Edited from Bloomberg News:
Yesterday, Queen Elizabeth II made her first visit to New York since the 1976 bicentennial of U.S. independence from Great Britain. She addressd the United Nations and visited the World Trade Center site afterwards.

The queen's speech to the UN was her first since 1957, 12 years after the world body was established.

Afterwards, the queen and her husband, Prince Philip, will visit the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on New York, and then view a memorial at Hanover Square, in lower Manhattan, to the 67 British victims of the attack.

The 84-year-old monarch arrived here during a heat wave in New York, with the National Weather Service warning people to stay in the shade. Temperatures went over 100 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time in more than eight years.

Hopefully the old girl didn't wilt in the heat. (This is being typed up on Tuesday afternoon.) But if she did, then this will serve as a "Hat Squad" tribute more than as the daily "As Seen On TV" showcase......

In November and December of last year, a five-part docu-drama entitled 'The Queen' aired in Great Britain over the course of the week. With each episode, each set during a different decade at a pivotal moment of her reign, a different actress played the role of Queen Elizabeth II.

Here's how the IMDb described each episode, with italicized comments also by Gerard Gilbert of The Independent.

'THE QUEEN'

AS PLAYED BY:
Emilia Fox

Emilia Fox opens the series with a look at the first scandal experienced by the fledgling monarch, when it was revealed, in 1952, that her sister, Margaret, had fallen in love with an older, divorced royal employee, Group Captain Peter Townsend.

"Margaret"
Original Air Date—29 November 2009
When King George VI dies, his elder daughter Elizabeth becomes the Queen of Britain. Younger sister Margaret, feeling sidelined, embarks on an affair with divorced palace employee Peter Townsend, sixteen years her senior. The Establishment opposes this and the Queen gives Peter a foreign posting to separate the pair. Margaret, backed by public opinion, is still keen to marry him, though she must renounce her claims to succession to the throne. Ultimately she chooses duty and privilege over love, though Elizabeth is perceived to have manipulated her.

AS PLAYED BY:
Samantha Bond

The second film – arguably the most interesting, for being the least familiar – stars Samantha Bond and is set in the strike-ridden early 1970s, when the royal family's popularity was its lowest ebb and the Queen was running out of money.

"Us And Them"
Original Air Date—30 November 2009
By 1969 the Royal Family has lost its mystique as TV cameras film their lives. The days of blind reverence have gone as nearly a fifth of the population want rid of them, including members of Harold Wilson's Labour government, to whom the queen must appeal for an increase in her finances.

The increase is granted under the incoming Tories but the industrial unrest of the early 1970s contributes to the unpopularity of the Royal family. In 1974 Wilson's return to power is a boost for the queen as, ironically, is an attack on Princess Anne by unbalanced Ian Ball and, ultimately, another storm is weathered.

AS PLAYED BY:
Susan Jameson

The third film, with Susan Jameson wearing the royal head-scarf, is set in the run-up to the 1986 Commonwealth Games and looks at the sovereign's uneasy relationship with Margaret Thatcher.

"The Rivals"
Original Air Date—1 December 2009
The Queen does not see eye-to-eye with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and, in 1986, the Sunday Times newspaper publishes an article claiming to be the Queen's less than flattering opinion of Thatcher whose regime she describes as uncaring and divisive. This is prompted by Thatcher's refusal to agree to sanctions on South Africa, as a result of which other Commonwealth countries are threatening to boycott the Commonwealth Games. The Queen loves the Commonwealth and the two women go head-to-head. Thatcher has her way and a much depleted games takes place - at least allowing England to win more medals than usual - but the Queen's stance has raised her standing in the Commonwealth.

AS PLAYED BY:
Barbara Flynn

The penultimate film, with Barbara Flynn, takes place during the Queen's annus horribilis, 1992.

"The Enemy Within"
Original Air Date—2 December 2009
In 1992, the Queen insists that her family should pay tax, in order to be seen as 'doing their bit'. But there are family problems. Frisky daughter-in-law Sarah has left Prince Andrew and ended up on tabloid front pages in a saucy pose with her financial advisor. This leaves unhappy Princess Diana, betrayed by her husband Charles, gaining public sympathy through a book and television interview. Once more public opinion seems to want the end of the monarchy and, to add to Elizabeth's problems, part of Windsor Castle burns down. 1992 truly turns out to be her 'annus horribilus' with the marriage of Charles and Diana, which once seemed so romantic, coming to an end.

AS PLAYED BY:
Diana Quick

The final film has Diana Quick's monarch coming to terms with Prince Charles's determination to marry Camilla Parker Bowles.

"How Do You Solve A Problem Like Camilla?"
Original Air Date—3 December 2009
A year after Diana's death, Queen Elizabeth will not entertain Charles's longtime soul-mate and mistress, the divorced Camilla Parker-Bowles, refusing to attend his fiftieth birthday party because of her presence. For once public opinion is with the Queen and Camilla is demonized in the press but Charles's spin-doctor Mark Bolland engineers a situation which demonstrates the couple's oneness and they are gradually accepted by the Establishment and, significantly, Charles's sons. By necessity, the Queen starts to unbend and learn to move with the times, attending the couple's wedding reception.

BCnU!

FREES FRAME THAT FACE!

From 1955 to 1960, the audience of the Trueniverse watched as a millionaire named John Beresford Tipton attempted to give away about 188 million dollars to total strangers, one million each, in the TV series 'The Millionaire'.

Tipton was never seen handing over the check personally to these people; that was the job of his assistant Michael Anthony. In fact, Tipton was never seen, save for his right arm, as he was always hidden away in his high-backed chair at the desk in his mansion's study on the Silverstone estate.

Based on his voice, however, I think we have a pretty good idea what John Beresford Tipton looked like......

Here's a picture of the "Man With A Thousand Voices", Paul Frees, as he looked in the movie "Space Master X-7". Since he was providing the voice for a character who was otherwise not seen, we might as well make the assumption that Tipton looked like Frees. It's a nice change of pace from the usual situation in which Frees' voice was heard coming from somebody else's mouth. (If I had to cast anybody to play his older brother, I'd have gone with Arthur O'Connell.)

In Toobworld, John Beresford Tipton died several years before 'The Millionaire' began broadcasting in 1955. He was probably buried somewhere on the 60,000 acres of the Silverstone estate.....

BCnU!

TRUE OR VIEW?

Is there anybody out there who can tell me if the Friday Club, a pro-Hitler organization in Great Britain at the beginning of World War II (as seen in 'Foyle's War') actually existed?

Along those same lines, is there such a thing as "the Brunswick Gene"? Supposedly the Brunswick Gene can eventually cause death to the person who carries it in their genetic makeup. This was the case in an episode of 'Kingdom' and I'd like to know if it actually exists in the real world.

If both are fictional, that's cool; just two more examples in which Toobworld is not the same as the real world....

BCnU!

NUMBERS RUNNING: FOYLE, KINGDOM, RUBICON

Some off-beat applications of "The Numbers" from 'Lost' have cropped up in my viewing lately.....

'Kingdom'
A confrontation between a golfing club and a coven of Druids occurred on the 16th green, which was thought to be the crossroads of ley lines containing magical energies.

'Foyle's War'
Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle and his driver Samantha Stewart were seen outside tanker bay #4 at a Hastings fuel depot.

'Rubicon'
This espionage series won't be starting until August 1st, but AMC has already shown the first episode. The show started off on the birthday of the main character, Will Travis, who was born on April 8th. So this is a combination of two of "The Numbers" since April is the fourth month in the year. 4-8

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: PRINCE CHARLES 2x2

Too hot to work up a proper ASOTV showcase for Two For Tuesday.....

PRINCE CHARLES

AS SEEN IN:
"Princess In Love"

AS PLAYED BY:
Christopher Bowen

PRINCE CHARLES

AS SEEN IN:
"Whatever Love Means"

AS PLAYED BY:
Laurence Fox

BCnU!