VINCENT PRICE AT 100

Well, I totally missed out on celebrating Vincent Price's 100th birthday yesterday, but it's never too late. 

Bill Hader (Thanks, Ivan!) does a fun impression of the Master of Horror as he hosted various TV specials in Skitlandia.  You can easily find several of them at least mentioned in blog posts if you do a search for "Vincent Price".

But I'd like to once again bring up one of my favorite theories of relateeveety, which dealt with Vincent Price's most eggstreme TV character......

It's also one of the Toobworld hypotheticals that another alien [who was] involved in that blast {and survived} had been a Conehead from Remulac. This Conehead, whether it was a male or a female somehow fit into the human society during the early stages of Soviet Russia and even fathered a half-human hybrid child who grew up to become an arch-villain in Gotham City.... Egghead.


Egghead would have been born in Russia several years after his Remulac parental unit crashed in Tunguska; probably in 1911, the same birth year as the actor who portrayed him - Vincent Price.

And that would make Egghead 100 years old as well.

Who knows?  Maybe due to his genetic background, he could still be alive in Toobworld!

So here's to you, Mr. Price.  In your memory I doff my cap.  Thank you for all the great movies and TV shows to which you contributed.....

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD II/TELE-FOLKS DIRECTORY: JEFF CONAWAY

With the passing of Jeff Conaway yesterday, I wanted to pay tribute to his three best known Toobworld characters with a selection of videos.

First up, Bobby Wheeler of 'Taxi', who wanted so badly to make it as an actor......

I'd like to think that at some point in his career, his path crossed that of Joey Tribbiani, perhaps he even mentored him along the way......

Then we leave Earth Prime-Time and head to the far side of the Sun, where the planet Mondas used to be. It's the Toobworld Concept conceit that many of the shows that have been Earth-like, but couldn't possibly be set on Earth Prime-Time, were instead located on Mondas - before the rise of the Cybermen and the planet hurtled out of its orbit.

This would include shows like 'Beastmaster', 'Game Of Thrones', and 'Wizards & Warriors' in which Conaway played the heroic lead, Prince Erik Greystone......

And finally, I couldn't find a decent video showcasing him as the security officer Zack Allen on board 'Babylon 5'. But I did find this fan tribute to the series, giving it an elegiac send-off. And at the end, Conaway's character shares in the good-byes......

As someone posted on Facebook, it's a shame that the demons won in the end.......

THE STORY OF O

So Oprah ended her run this past Wednesday - on the last day of Sweeps of course!

I know of only two shows during her run that I actually watched - the reunion of 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' cast (on the recreated sets of Mayr's apartment and the WJM studio) and the final episode. As a televisiologist, I felt I had to watch that one.

So I'm not the person who could do a fitting tribute to Oprah. Luckily, there was someone who could.....

BCnU!

HECKLING JOKER

Mark Evanier shared this in his blog "News From ME" (link to the left, me lovelies) and for me, it was like being reunited with a friend I never met before. Hopefully I'll be able to track down more examples of Irv Benson's humor someday.

Apparently, Irv Benson as Sid Shpritzer was the inspiration for Statler and Waldorf from 'The Muppet Show'........

BCnU!

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY PiM

And because I never want 'Star Trek' to feel like the unloved step-child, especially since it is so vital to the expansion of the TV Universe, here's something a little.... Huj.....

Qapla!

OUTER SPACE OUT-TAKES WITH THE DOCTOR

Usually on the Saturday of our Video Weekend, we offer up some clips from that night's episode of 'Doctor Who' to whet your appetite. However, at least here in America, there won't be a new episode of the show because apparently we're all watching war movies and other TV marathons in honor of Memorial Day. So I'll hold off on all the clips available for "The Almost People" until next Saturday.

Instead, here is the blooper reel to found on the DVD boxed set for Matt Smith's first season as the Doctor. (I'll leave the actual numbering of the season/series for the show overall up to you to argue about.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: MOZART & FRIENDS



WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

AS SEEN DURING:
The 'Saturday Night Live' Dress Rehearsal

AS PLAYED BY:
Justin Timberlake

TV DIMENSION:
Skitlandia

For some reason, it was decided that this sketch wasn't good enough to make the actual broadcast. But since NBC did post the dress rehearsal version online, and since Toobworld Central does accept online content to be part of the TV Universe, this sketch is deemed to be part of Toobworld.

Also seen in this sketch with Mozart were:

ANTONIO SALIERI
(Andy Samberg)



JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
(Jason Sudeikis)

The only one missing to make this a Fab Four would have been Ludwig von Beethoven.  Sadly, it's long too late for that to have happened.....

 BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD: JEFF CONAWAY

By Dennis McLellan

Los Angeles Times
May 27, 2011, 11:45 a.m.

Jeff Conaway, an actor who came to fame in the late 1970s as a high school greaser in the hit movie musical "Grease" and as a regular on the TV series "Taxi" but in more recent years was known for his appearances on "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew," died Friday. He was 60.

Conaway died at Encino Hospital Medical Center of complications from pneumonia, said his sister Carla Shreve. He was unconscious when he arrived at the hospital the second week of May, the result of "just too many prescribed drugs," she said.

Good night and may God bless.......

"COMMUNITY" TO "COUGAR TOWN" - AND BACK AGAIN

Earlier this season, did you see the 'Community' episode "Critical Film Studies"? (Most people know it as the "Pulp Fiction" episode.) In it, Abed channeled his inner Andre Gregory - as seen in the 1981 movie "My Dinner With Andre" - and delivered a memorable monologue about being invited to be an extra on the set of 'Cougar Town':

The capper came on the last night of May Sweeps, Wednesday, May 25, 2011, when actor Danny Pudi showed up in the background of a scene in the season-ender for 'Cougar Town':

At first, it looks like it's a confirmation that 'Cougar Town' is just a TV series and that what we're seeing is Abed - as "Chad" - doing his atmosphere people schtick on a fictional series. For some televisiologists, the best splainin they could hope for is that 'Community' takes place in Earth Prime-Time, the main Toobworld, while 'Cougar Town' is in that same TV dimension which houses 'Hi Honey, I'm Home' and those TV movies that look behind the scenes of classic TV shows.

But this is not a Zonk. 'Community' and 'Cougar Town' both still exist in the main Toobworld.

Oh, that could be Abed that we saw in the background. But it's not Abed playing a character named "Chad". It's the actual Abed Nadir - visiting West Gulfhaven after the end of his school semester at Greendale Community in Colorado.

If you remember what he said about his Hollywood experience, he was asked to walk through a scene in the background for a show called 'Cougar Town' which starred Courtney Cox. But in the 'Cougar Town' scene, he was sitting at a table outside the Subway sandwich shop and Courtney Cox was nowhere to be seen. Instead we had Dan Byrd and Busy Philips as their characters Travis Cobb and Laurie Keller, respectively.

The scene described by Abed was for a TV show within the Toobworld reality which was called 'Cougar Town'. The scene with Abed shown during 'Cougar Town' was Toobworld reality.

Does that make sense?

Abed wasn't acting as "Chad". That was really Abed. And as for Courtney Cox, there's been no real mention to her in connection to 'Cougar Town' within the show. There just happens to be a divorcee in West Gulfhaven named Jules Cobb who happens to look like Courtney Cox. And the name 'Cougar Town' doesn't even come into play within the series, unless West Gulfhaven does have that reputation - and it probably does, thanks to women like Barb.

So, again, the 'Cougar Town' mentioned within 'Community' is not the same show as seen by the TV audience viewing at home in the Trueniverse.

Which reminds me of this Inner Toob post from My 15, about the two-part season finale of 'Community':

Also thanks to Alan Sepinwall for pointing this out, but you can see Busy Phillips and Dan Byrd among the students during that big apocalyptic attack on the Pistol Patty's ice cream truck near the end of Part Two. This could mean that Laurie accompanied Travis to Greendale Community College so that he could check out another option for school. And they didn't have to fly from West Gulfhaven, Florida, but instead from the 'Cougar Town' season finale in Hawaii. In fact, the whole gang could conceivably be there on campus, but all we saw were Laurie and Trav.

You know Jules would shoot down Greendale as an option after seeing the paintball carnage!

So it's possible that Abed got the chance to talk with Laurie and Travis and then decided to follow them back to West Gulfhaven to see it for himself. And, having been discovered, he bolted in case they thought he was stalking them.....

BCnU!

"LO:LA" - A MIXED-UP, MUDDLED-UP, SHOOK-UP TOOBWORLD

'Law & Order: Los Angeles' ends its run on June 27th......

It wasn't around for very long, less than a full seaon, but in its disrupted, revamped run, 'Law & Order: Los Angeles' displayed the spectrum of the population for the City of Angels: Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, immigrants, rich, poor, religious fanatics, the homeless, and members of the LGBT community. But there was one group of L.A.'s society that was never represented in any of the episodes.

The Tenctonese.

The Tenctonese, an alien race derisively called Slags and Spongeheads by the native human population, landed on Earth Prime-Time in the early 1990s, just outside the Los Angeles area. Over 300,000 of them had been held captive aboard a slaver ship but had rebelled, forcing the ship to land in the desert. When we first saw them in the TV series 'Alien Nation', it was around the year 1995 (although the series aired earlier in the real world).

By the time the series started, the Tenctonese had established themselves as part of the Los Angeles population (although not fully accepted), not partitioned away like the Prawns in "District 9". But I don't think many ventured farther than California, to other states in America, in their expansion.

Since the series ended after its first season, the Tenctonese should have been at least visible in background scenes in other TV shows that were set in Los Angeles - or so it would be if this was a perfect Toobworld. I'm not saying that a whole plotline from 'Law & Order: Los Angeles' had to be about the Tenctonese, but why didn't we see any at crime scenes as police officers (if not detectives like George Francisco)? As bystanders at those crime scenes? Or back at the headquarters for the district attorney, working as members of the secretarial pool at least?

Dick Wolf certainly missed an opportunity with the casting of Corey Stoll......


Sorry about that, Chief.....

Why haven't we seen the Tenctonese in shows like 'Arrested Development' and 'The Bold & The Beautiful'? In the jury pool of 'Murder One', in the audience at a late night taping as seen on 'The Larry Sanders Show', or even a deceased Tenctonese being prepared for viewing on 'Six Feet Under'? Once 'Columbo' returned to the airwaves in 1989, we could have seen a few of these aliens in some of the later episodes, and along the same lines, in one of the TV movie reunions for 'The Rockford Files'. (Although I think they would have avoided Jim's trailer on the beach since the combination of salt and water is deadly to them, which could have led to a murder mystery investigated by Dr. 'Bones' Brennan.)

The Tenctonese could have been buying their variant of 'Weeds' in Agrestic (although sour milk is their drug of choice.)  Wouldn't they be perfect as the focus in a 'Fringe' case, or one of 'The X-Files'? And if there was one place in Southern California where they would not seem out of place, it would have been Sunnydale (as seen in 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer'.)

But in those fifteen years since we know they were well-ensconced in the area, those oversized, spotted craniums without ears are nowhere to be seen in the state.

I think there can be only one splainin - somehow they were all loaded up into another space-ship (or their original one was refitted and made space-worthy again) and transported to a new world on which they could recreate their former lives on Tencton.

It may even be that the Gallifreyan Time Lord known as the Doctor got involved, preferably the Eighth incarnation seen in "Doctor Who - The Movie". That old girl the TARDIS could have taken them all to a new planet somewhere in the galaxy. As big as it was on the inside, it may still have needed a few trips to get the job done, but the Doctor could have played the part of the ferryman in less than a day.

A few Tenctonese may still be around on the main Toobworld, even whole families, and I think at the very least every one that was part of the main cast on the 'Alien Nation' TV series would have chosen to stay behind (just in case any more TV movies should occur.) But otherwise this will stand as the Toobworld Central position on the matter - the majority of their species departed Earth Prime-Time to lived elsewhere among the stars.

Each episode of 'Law & Order: Los Angeles' was named after a different location in the Los Angeles area - "Echo Beach", "Hayden Tract", "Zuma Canyon", etc. If they had done an episode involving the Tenctonese, they would have had two options: "Little Tencton" or "Slagtown".....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: MICHELE DAVIS

MICHELE DAVIS

AS SEEN IN:
"Too Big To Fail"

AS PLAYED BY:
Cynthia Nixon

TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:
Michele A. Davis served in a number of senior communications positions in the U.S. Treasury Department, Fannie Mae, and the White House during the George W. Bush era from 2001 to January 20, 2009. In her last government position, she served as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs and Director of Policy Planning in the Department of Treasury, where she advised Secretary Hank Paulson. She was also a senior member of the Treasury team addressing the credit crisis of 2007-2009 in 2008.

She is currently a Partner at the Brunswick Group, a global corporate communications advisory firm.

BCnU!

TELE-QUICKIE: COP SHOW GAME-CHANGERS

Here's a list that should interest the members of Team Toobworld.....

Top Ten Cop Shows That Changed The Medium

BCnU!

TOOBWORLD STUDIES - IN ANOTHER UNIVERSE

Here's a recent entry from the comic strip "Soup To Nutz":

What Andrew and Royboy Nutz probably didn't realize is that - even though they are residents of the comic strip universe - they were dabbling in televisiology.

Whoever the actress was who was appearing in the blipverts for the laxative and acid reflux products, the claim could be made that she was playing the same person. And Royboy picked up on that.....

BCnU!

FROM THE LAST STREET IN MANHATTAN TO ALBUQUERQUE

With the 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent' episode entitled "The Last Street In Manhattan", NBC (as the parent company) missed out on a great chance for a two-part crossover on USA Network.

In "The Last Street In Manhattan", Sean was a bar owner in Inwood (just north of Toobworld Central), and when his daughter Vanessa thought he had been killed by a neighborhood mobster, she finally told the truth about how that thug killed her former boyfriend. Afterwards, she was reunited with her father who was very much alive.

That's where the episode ended. But the story of Sean and Vanessa should have continued - straight into the show that follows 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent' on USA Network: 'In Plain Sight'.

In order to protect Vanessa from harm before she had a chance to testify against the mobster - and afterwards as well - she and her father should be put into the Witness Protection Program with new identities.

And that would mean we'd get to see U.S. Marshals Mary Shannon and Marshall Mann interact with Detectives Bobby Goren and Alexandra Eames as the transfer of the two took place. Then we could see Sean and Vanessa's story continue in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

'Law & Order: Criminal Intent' and 'In Plain Sight' are already connected, so it's not like this would have been an impossible dream.  Mary Shannon showed up in New York to take custody of a witness and she met with Captain Danny Ross and Detectives Mike Logan and Megan Wheeler.

Oh well. Maybe next time.....

But at some point, we may see actor Jack McGee (who played Sean) in a guest spot on some other show.  Since he's such a good character actor, that's probably a given.  And if we don't learn that much about his character - and so long as he's in some other location than New York City, we might be able to make the claim that he's actually Sean in his new identity.

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: HORATIO BOTTOMLEY

HORATIO BOTTOMLEY

AS SEEN IN:
'The Edwardians'

AS PLAYED BY:
Timothy West

TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:
Horatio William Bottomley (23 March 1860 – 26 May 1933) was a British financier, swindler, journalist, newspaper proprietor, populist politician and Member of Parliament (MP).

In 1888, he founded the Financial Times and was its first Chairman as a means of puffing his projects. In 1908 he was charged with conspiracy to defraud but the chaos of his record systems produced a hung jury and instead he was forced into bankruptcy in 1912, forcing him out of Parliament. (He entered the Parliament as the Liberal MP for Hackney South in 1906, was re-elected in 1910, and thrown out for bankruptcy in 1912.)

In 1906 he established the patriotic journal John Bull. John Bull was originally strongly anti-Serbian but by 15 August 1914 Bottomley had reversed its position and supported the war effort. Bottomley argued that Germany "must be wiped off the map of Europe", with her colonies and navy divided between Britain and France. He also attacked the Kaiser and Germans (called "Germhuns") generally and those living in Britain: "As I have said elsewhere you cannot naturalize an unnatural beast—a human abortion—a hellish fiend. But you can exterminate it".

Bottomley advocated the confiscation of all German property, the internment of all Germans and the requirement of naturalized Germans to wear a distinctive badge. Bottomley also campaigned to get the Kaiser's banner removed from St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

Bottomley also strongly attacked that section of the Labour Party which opposed the war, and argued that Keir Hardie and Ramsay MacDonald should be court-martialled for high treason. MacDonald responded to these attacks by claiming Bottomley to be of "doubtful parentage, who had lived all his life on the threshold of jail". Bottomley retaliated by producing a facsimile of MacDonald's birth certificate which showed he was illegitimate.

Although it is illegal for servicemen to send complaints to the press, Bottomley set up a column in John Bull where servicemen were encouraged to send an account of their grievances, upon which a company which advertised in the paper would send a parcel to them. The government thought about prosecuting Bottomley for this but they did not bring proceedings against him because they saw the usefulness of such a "safety valve". Within six months of the Great War one serious journalist wrote that "next to Kitchener the most influential man today is Mr. Horatio Bottomley".

In 1915 Bottomley wrote articles for the Sunday Pictorial, with their success making him "the most famous journalist in Britain" through a mixture of "down-to-earth religiosity, patriotism and Radicalism".

Bottomley created the "John Bull Victory Bond Club" (a forerunner of Premium Bonds), purportedly as a mechanism for small savers to lend money to the Government, receiving prizes rather than interest; again a combination of fraud and mismanagement sank the scheme in 1921. He was charged with fraud, perjury and false accounting. In 1922, Bottomley was convicted of fraudulent conversion of shareholders' funds, sentenced to seven years jail and expelled from Parliament.

He was released from gaol in 1927 and, after parading himself around seedy music-halls in a mawkish one-man show, died in penury on 26 May 1933.

But he was irredeemably, utterly, psychotically corrupt. He built a string of other businesses on nothing more than fresh air: but there were always useful and distinguished idiots on the board, so he could tell the shareholders' meeting: "I would love to pay you a dividend, but my directors won't let me."
Matthew Engel in The Guardian, Tuesday 30 November 1999

Bottomley's resemblance to contemporary King Edward VII could lead to salacious supposition about Prince Albert, at least as far as Toobworld is concerned....

Horatio Bottomley died on this date 78 years ago today.

BCnU!

MAYBERRY MUSINGS

Team Toobworld member Pat Coleman cobbled together this great movie poster:

And it reminded me of that classic (ain't they all?) episode of 'The Andy Griffith Show' in which Barney's disguise foiled the marital plans of Ernest T. Bass.

Not that Ernest T. Bass was a time traveler, mind......

A Facebook group dedicated to 'The Andy Griffith Show' posted this behind-the-scenes photo from that episode, showing Andy Griffith and Don Knotts between shots:

And "between shots" could be taken in a different way as well. They both look like this is a scene from the prequel to "The Hangover". (Tagline: "Now Mayberry's Got Them")

Thanks, Pat!
 
BCnU!

BEAT ME, DOONESBURY, EIGHT TO THE BAR

And speaking of Jimmy Thudpucker, his appearance in "A Doonesbury Special" showed that the 'Lost Numbers' could be found in the Tooniverse as well......

BCnU!

PIANO TOONERS

The comic strip "Doonesbury" spent last week poking fun at the Rapture/apocalypse that was supposed to arrive on Saturday. Aside from the outdated joke at Donald Trump's expense, the best moment came on the "Doomsday" with this panel:

So as far as Gary Trudeau is concerned, "Doonesbury" does not share the same universe as "Peanuts". Which is fine, I guess - I'm not a caretaker for the fictional universe based on comic strips.

But in a side dimension to Earth Prime-Time, the Tooniverse, those two properties do co-exist. In 1977, John Hubley brought Trudeau's Walden Pond to life on the little screen, while more people are probably better acquainted with the cartoon versions of the "Peanuts" gang than they are with the original comic strip.

And to illustrate both "Tooniversions", I chose two characters with several things in common - they play the piano, they're both blonde, and they're both my favorite characters in their respective strips:


JIMMY THUDPUCKER



SCHROEDER

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: DICK FULD

RICHARD "DICK" FULD

AS SEEN IN:
"Too Big To Fail"

AS PLAYED BY:
James Woods

TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:
Richard Severin "Dick" Fuld, Jr. (born April 26, 1946) is an American banker and executive best known as the final Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lehman Brothers. Fuld had held this position since the firm's 1994 spinoff from American Express until 2008. Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 on September 15, 2008, and subsequently announced a sale of major operations to parties including Barclays Bank and Nomura Securities.

Fuld was nicknamed the "Gorilla" on Wall Street for his competitiveness.

"dickfuld" should become a word of derision......

In Toobworld, Fuld resembles Bill W, Roy Cohn, and Mayor Rudy Giuliani......

BCnU!

CELEBRATING DYLAN'S SEVENTIETH

Happy 70th Birthday, Mr. Dylan!

BCnU!

SCRYWARE: A CINEVERSE PREDICTION?

If I was one of the producers of the upcoming movie "Hunger Games", or any of the suits at the studio releasing it, I might be a little worried about the film's reception and potential box office after star Jennifer Lawrence's appearance on 'Late Night With David Letterman' last week.

She described the film as "a very violent futuristic movie where kids are randomly selected from their home districts to fight in an arena to the death." At which the audience showed their dislike of the concept by groaning. Letterman may have quickly turned it around by joking about it being lighter fare, but who knows?

It'll probably do great box office on its opening weekend and grab the younger market at first, but will it have legs? A lot rides on word of mouth and if that 'Late Show ' audience is any indication, they might be put off just from its description.

Who knows? I'm probably wrong. It wouldn't be the first time!

Here's the full clip of Jennifer Lawrence's first visit to the 'Late Show'. Most of her segment was focused on her other movie which is coming out first - "X-Men: First Class" in which she plays a younger Mystique. For the sequence about "Hunger Games", you can skip ahead to about 4:10. Although I don't see why you'd want to - she's lovely to look at and she was charming to listen to....

BCnU!

ANOTHER SERVING OF DUSHKU

More online content that can be absorbed into the TV Universe:

Producer Jane Espenson hinted in a series of tweets that Eliza Dushku (of 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer', 'Tru Calling' and 'Dollhouse') will be playing the lead in a new web series called 'Torchwood: Web Of Lies'.

This will be a companion series to 'Torchwood: Miracle Day'.

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: TIMOTHY GEITHNER

TIMOTHY GEITHNER

AS SEEN IN:
"Too Big To Fail"

AS PLAYED BY:
Billy Crudup

TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:
Timothy Franz Geithner (born August 18, 1961) is an American economist, banker, and civil servant. He is the 75th and current United States Secretary of the Treasury, serving under President Barack Obama. He was previously the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Geithner's position includes a large role in directing the Federal Government's spending on the financial crisis of 2007–2011, including allocation of $350 billion of funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program enacted during the previous administration. At the end of his first year in office, he continued to deal with multiple high visibility issues, including administration efforts to restructure the regulation of the nation's financial system, attempts to spur recovery of both the mortgage market and the automobile industry, demands for protectionism, President Obama's tax changes, and negotiations with foreign governments on approaches to worldwide financial issues.

 

TIMOTHY GEITHNER

AS SEEN ON:
'Saturday Night Live'

AS PLAYED BY:
Will Forte

TV DIMENSION:
Skitlandia

Two for Tuesday!

THEORIES OF RELATEEVEETY: YO, ADRIAN!!!!

One of my theories of relateeveety offered a link between 'My Boys' and 'Doctor Who', based on the extended family tree for two characters played by O.T. Fagbenle.

It looks like I may be able to expand that theoretical connection to now include 'Happy Endings'.

First off, an easy one - both 'Happy Endings' and 'My Boys' take place in Chicago.

Dez was the British-born husband of Wendy, Brendon's ex-girlfriend, and he owned a trendy a bar. But since we saw him last, and since 'My Boys' sadly was cancelled, what's he been up to? Just because the show was over, as everybody should know about Toobworld by now, that doesn't mean his life was over as well.

I think we can make the claim that the character played by O.T. Fagbenle on 'Happy Endings' was Dez from 'My Boys'.

Considering Adrian was single, gay, and working for the Chicago Bears, that's gonna take a whole lotta splainin to do......

First off, his name:
It could be that his full name was Desmond Adrian or Adrian Desmond.... whatever his last name may have been. Or maybe one of those two names was his actual last name, probably Desmond. And "Dez" was a nickname. Once he came out of the closet and broke up with Wendy, he decided to re-invent himself. Going by his first name of "Adrian" was the first step.

As to his sexual orientation:
Perhaps he could no longer live a lie and confessed all to Wendy. This would probably lead to her breaking up with him, forcing him to live with his bartender friend (whom we met in the 'Happy Endings' episode.)

And for his change in occupation:
Since we saw his character in 2008, a lot could have happened in three years besides the new lifestyle. In the divorce settlement, maybe Wendy got custody of that trendy bar, leaving Dez - er, Adrian - without a source of income.

It could have led to a whole new episode of 'My Boys' where, of all people, Brendan took pity on the guy who landed his ex. Maybe Brando coaxed P.J. and Mike to pull a few strings, call in a few favors, and land the guy a job for one of the Windy City's sports teams. And to complicate matters, as sitcom plots should, he ended up getting a job that Mike would have wanted.

And eventually, it would all lead to Adrian meeting Max and asking him out for a date......

It's not as twisty a piece of pretzel logic as it could have been, and jackLord knows I've sometimes put my back out trying to splain things away. So as far these two one-shot characters are concerned, where's the harm in thinking they're one and the same?

And please - don't question how it would still lead to Adrian "Dez" Desmond being the ancestor for "Other Dave". Gays can have kids too, ya know.

SHOWS CITED:
'Happy Endings' - "The Girl With The David Tattoo"

'My Boys' - "The Shirt Contest"

'Doctor Who' - "Silence In The Library"/"Forest Of The Dead"

BCnU!

A "D'OHHSE" OF ROUND-HEADED BUFFOONS

When Springfield had a film festival in 'The Simpsons', and when Bart's football team hosted the team from Arlen, Texas, animation styles were mixed with the guest appearances by Jay Sherman of 'The Critic' and Hank Hill's family from 'The King Of The Hill', respectively.

It looks like it's going to happen again, probably next season, when Ricky Gerais, Stephen Merchant, and Karl Pilkington will appear on 'The Simpsons' as their "tooniversions" in 'The Ricky Gervais Show' on HBO, which animates their podcasts.

That's pretty much all the info I have so far. Gervais wasn't very forthcoming in his blog:

"I won't give the joke away but they are featuring a little clip of The Ricky Gervais Show in a future episode."

So stay tooned!

Sorry about that, Chief......

AS SEEN ON TV: HANK PAULSON

HANK PAULSON

SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY

AS SEEN IN:
"Too Big To Fail"

AS PLAYED BY:
William Hurt

TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:
Henry Merritt 'Hank' Paulson, Jr. (born March 28, 1946) served as the 74th United States Treasury Secretary. He previously served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs.

"Too Big To Fail" premieres tonight (Monday) on HBO!
 
BCnU!

"GAMES OF THRONES" - EPISODE 6 PREVIEW

And finally, because I'm so hopped up on this new HBO series, here's the preview for Episode 6 of 'Game Of Thrones':

Julian Glover, seen in the previous 'Doctor Who' video of "City Of Death" bloopers, is a member of this cast. He plays the old Maester on the Small Council......

This new episode of 'Game Of Thrones' will air tonight at 9 PM EDT on HBO......

BCnU!

"CITY OF DEATH" BLOOOPERS

Julian Glover is a great actor, who's been in 'Doctor Who', 'The Avengers', the third "Indiana Jones" movie, and now in 'Game Of Thrones'.

Here he is in a blooper reel from the "City Of Death" story of 'Doctor Who'....

BCnU!

TOOBSONGS

Just wanted to share a song that was used in the most recent episode of 'In Plain Sight'. It was also used in episodes of 'Smallville' and 'The Vampire Diaries'.

It's got a long way to go to be as used as often as Jeff Buckley's rendition of "Hallelujah" though.....
 
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COURTESY OF AUNTIE BEEB.....

A big thanks to the sister of my nephew's girlfriend for pointing this out......

I've seen a couple of these promo blipverts over the last few years, and most of those TV movies and mini-series never see the light of day over here in America.  And some of them look really good too; I'm sure they'd find an audience over here.

But I guess BBC-A is just too busy I guess with their on-the-cheap "reality" programming about cleaning your house and finding cash in the attic....

Anyhoo, thanks, Mara!

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FROM ONE ENDING, A NEW BEGINNING.....

A week ago today, the Broadway musical "Wonderland" - a modern re-telling of "Alice In Wonderland" - closed at the Marquis Theatre after it was shut out for this year's Tony Awards.

I'm sure any show's closing would be memorable enough, but I think at least two of these actors will always remember this one especially.....

Yeah, I know it's not TV-related. But I had just seen the show a few days before. So sue me.

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"JEWLIANA" MARGULIES

Recently, Juliana Margulies appeared on 'The Late Show with David Letterman' and talked about how her toddler is speaking with a German accent:

That slip of the tongue reminded me of my third favorite Orson Welles movie, "The Stranger", which took place in the fictional town of Harper, Connecticut.

I don't know who wrote the following, but it can be found on many sites around the Internet:

Welles is the Nazi war criminal Kindler hiding out in a small Connecticut town where he has become a valued member of the community known as Rankin.

Edward G Robinson, playing a good guy for a change, is the detective who tracks him down, and then has to prove who he is.

There's a wonderful bit of dialogue when his professorial Nazi character is fielding questions on the German character. Somebody asks him about Karl Marx to disprove a point.

"Ah, but Marx wasn't a German, he was a Jew," comes the telling response, delivered with such arrogance and conviction it makes you seethe.

It isn't until much later that government Nazi-hunter Wilson has a light-bulb moment and realizes that something is very amiss about what Rankin/Kindler said.
 
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AS SEEN ON TV: MARTHA WASHINGTON

 MARTHA WASHINGTON

AS SEEN IN:

'You Are There' -

"Washington Crosses The Delaware"

AS PLAYED BY:

Sheila Bromley

From Wikipedia:

Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (June 2, 1731 – May 22, 1802) was the wife of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington is considered to be the first First Lady of the United States. During her lifetime, she was known as "Lady Washington".

From ushistory.org:

The will of George Washington ordered the freedom of half of his slaves, leaving the old and the young to remain. Martha freed them all in 1800. Her own health was deteriorating and in March of 1802, sensing her death, she made a will. She then burned all her letters she and her husband had written to one another over the years, except for two.

May 22, 1802, Martha Dandridge Custis Washington breathed her last with her beloved granddaughter Nelly nearby. She was entombed next to her husband at Mt. Vernon.

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