HARRISON BERGERON - TWICE UPON A TIME

In the multiverse of Toobworld, many of the characters from TV shows set in Earth Prime-Time have duplicates in the other TV dimensions. You can find their counterparts of course in the Land of Remakes, but also in the Tooniverse (Fonzie and Jeannie the Genie, for example), Skitlandia (like Lenny and Squiggy and Eddie Munster - all from 'SNL'), Doofusland (low IQ versions of George W. Bush and Abe Lincoln being the most prominent), even the movie of the week dimension - where the presidential line of succession has been different from our own since at least the 1930s ("Of Thee I Sing").

Precedent was established in 'Journeyman' that timing is everything (at least when it comes to "conceptual sex", for want of a better term) in keeping the characters exactly the same from one dimension to another. But there are times when a character was conceived in which the wrong sperm reached the egg first, but still the parents gave the same name to that character as he or she would have had in the main Toobworld. They may not only have different careers in the alternate dimension, but different looks as well.

That's why the Josiah Bartlet of Earth Prime-Time was a doctor once seen at St. Eligius Hospital and looked like the gentleman on the left, while the Josiah Bartlet of Earth Prime-Time/West Wing became the President of the United States and looked like the fellow on the right......

It's the kind of thing we've come to expect in the Land of Remakes, and especially in Earth Prime-Time/BET (a name in progress) where all the previously established characters are now black. ('The Odd Couple', 'Barefoot in the Park', even the "Honeymooners" feature film......)

Back in the early 1970's, Stony Stephenson was a jingle writer who got blasted into the Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum, in which he experienced a multitude of parallel dimensions all at the same time. In one of these alternate TV Landscapes, it was mandatory for everyone to be no better than anybody else - this meant everyone had to be saddled with handicaps to keep them on an equal footing with the majority.

But one man rebelled against that dictum - genius and superior athlete Harrison Bergeron, who commandeered air time on TV to show how beautiful it was to be yourself at your very best. At least until Handicapper General Diana Moon Glampers put a stop to his rebellion....

In that parallel TV dimension, it was also the 1970's as it was in Stony's original world, evident by the type of broadcasting equipment used in the studio.

Back here in the main Toobworld, Earth Prime-Time, Harrison Bergeron led a far different life because there were no equality laws like those found in that alternate dimension. Maybe it was a more dissolute life on the seamy side, but at least he got the chance to continue living.

And as we can see by these comparison pictures, there wasn't too much of a radical difference when it got down to the chromosomal level....

Of course, it could be that "Harrison Bergeron" was just another alias; we already know he went by the name of Donald Stark when he was running the sperm bank. And if so, this is no more than a guy who liked to read Vonnegut......

But I'll stick with my original idea.

SHOWS CITED:
'Bored To Death'
"Between Time And Timbuktu"
'Journeyman'
'St. Elsewhere'
'The West Wing'
'The Odd Couple'
'Barefoot In The Park'
"The Honeymooners"
'Happy Days'
'Fonzie And The Happy Days Gang'
'I Dream Of Jeannie'
'Jeannie'
'Laverne & Shirley'
'The Munsters'
'Saturday Night Live'
'That's My Bush!'
'The Secret Files Of Desmond Pfeiffer'
"Of Thee I Sing"

 BCnU!