END OF THE BLOG-CASTING DAY

"GOODNIGHT BURBANK"

My tele-bloggin' buddy Joe Bua (of "I Am A TV Junkie" fame - you'll find the link to the left, blokes!) clued me in to this new online sitcom called 'Goodnight Burbank'.

It's not really for me, although it's mostly because I just don't do longform online TV very well. My attention begins to wander and there's so many tangents I want to explore in the Internet.

And I'm puzzled as to why Dominic Monaghan is slumming in this. As a favor to a friend, perhaps?

But I did like this episode because it offered up a leading contender for a 2011 Toobits Award with the presence of John Barrowman as himself.....

BCnU!

ALT-COLUMBO

Here's another TVXOHOF member as he appeared in Skitlandia:

BCnU!

TIP TOP TAPS

Big thanks to J.r. Klink for digging up this chestnut. As a big fan of everybody in this clip from Dean Martin's show, I had a big grin on my face when I first saw it......

BCnU!

U68? U-BET!

I remember watching "Nocturnal Transmissions" from U68 back around 1982, when MTV wasn't on the Manhattan cable system yet. It was grainy and on a black & white set in my bedroom, but it opened up a whole new, yet very transitory, world of TV music.

When I finally got the chance to see MTV, I actually preferred the low-rent flavor of U68.

Thanks to my friend Scully, here's a collection of station IDs by mostly famous personalities for U68.....

BCnU!

MAYBERY IN SKITLANDIA

Both Sheriff Andy Taylor of 'The Andy Griffith Show' and comedy legend Bob Hope (as himself) are members of the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame.

With this sketch from a 1963 Bob Hope comedy special, we learn that Andy Taylor also exists in Skitlandia - where he proves himself to be tele-cognizant and able to come back from the dead.....

BCnU!

"DOCTOR WHO" - "THE ALMOST PEOPLE" PREVIEW

Tonight is the mid-season finale for 'Doctor Who' - at least in the UK. Because of Memorial Day weekend, the show was bumped from BBC-A last Saturday. So tonight American audiences will be watching the second part of the "Rebel Flesh" story - "The Almost People".

I've seen it. I follow the mantra of "Trust In Moffat", but the Doctor's actions at the end? I don't know....

Anyhoo, here's the trailer and three clips from "The Almost People" for my fellow Americans.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: THE MONTGOLFIER BROTHERS

June 4, 1783 – The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their montgolfière (hot air balloon).

THE MONTGOLFIER BROTHERS

AS SEEN IN:
'Monty Python's Flying Circus'

AS PLAYED BY:
Terry Jones (Joseph)
&
Eric Idle (Jacques)

"Inner Toob" previously wrote about the event three years ago as a Tiddlywinkydink.....

BCnU!

FRIDAY MUG SHOT

I haven't done a Friday Mug Shot in a while.......

This is for the fans of 'Game Of Thrones'. If you can, identify the actor. But at least identify the character he plays in the HBO fantasy series.

Bonus points if you can name the series from which this was purloined.....

The answer on Monday!

I've already had one partial answer - Andy knew who the actor is.  And he let me know I forgot to change the name of the jpg file.  So I've replaced the picture and added Andy's answer to my files, and we begin again.

Andy already has locked in the name of the actor.  I'm still looking for the name of this character, the show he was in, and who he's playing in 'Game Of Thrones'......

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: JAMIE DIMON

JAMIE DIMON

AS SEEN IN:
"Too Big To Fail"

AS PLAYED BY:
Bill Pullman

From Wikipedia:
James "Jamie" Dimon (born March 13, 1956) is the current CEO and chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co, and previously served as a Class A director of the Board of Directors of the New York Federal Reserve, a three year term which started January 2007. Dimon was named to Time Magazine′s 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2011 lists of the world's 100 most influential people.

In March 2008 he was a board member of the New York Federal Reserve Bank and CEO of J.P. Morgan and made decisions in connection with the $55 billion loan to J.P. Morgan to bail out Bear Stearns.

Following the acquisition of Washington Mutual by JPMorganChase, President Barack Obama had this to say about Dimon's handling of the real-estate crash, credit crisis, and the banking collapse affecting corporations nationwide, including major financial institutions like Bank Of America, Citibank, and Wachovia:

"You know, keep in mind, though there are a lot of banks that are actually pretty well managed, JPMorgan being a good example, Jamie Dimon, the CEO there, I don't think should be punished for doing a pretty good job managing an enormous portfolio."

We've got one more ASOTV showcase to do from this HBO movie, but it's the only one that needs a Toobworld splainin. I'll write it up over the weekend and have it available on Tuesday.

BCnU!

TVXOHOF, 06/2011: THE HOTEL EDISON

In the fifth season opener for 'Sex And The City', Carrie met a woman named Joan in a coffee shop. That scene was filmed in the Cafe Edison of the Hotel Edison and adds to the location connections for the hotel's televersion.

Also in that circle of friends:

'Seinfeld' (George was handcuffed to a bed.)

'Becker' (Becker trashed one of the hotel rooms.)

'The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show' (Jack Benny mentioned that George and Gracie stayed there for three years when they were first married. Gracie couldn't remember its name because George checked them in.)

'Naked City' (Detective Adam Flint made out with his girlfriend in front of the building.)

'CBS Sunday Morning' (Aaron Sorkin walked by.)

'CBS' The Early Show' (The Hotel Edison was featured in a report on hotel security. Of the hotels shown in the story, only the Edison passed the reporter's test by not allowing two women with a hidden camera to get in.)

'The Incredible Hulk' (The Hulk ran past just before smashing the newspaper stand on the corner of W 47th & Broadway.)

'McCloud' (McCloud may have rode his horse through the lobby - not yet verified.)

Over in the movie universe, it's also famous for the hallway up which Luca Brasi walks in "The Godfather", and down which Jack Warden and John Cusack walk in "Bullets Over Broadway".

There's another very important connection for the building: the 2005 TV Crossover Hall Of Fame inductee (Birthday Honors List) works there.

By extension, these appearances would also be connections to 'Late Night with David Letterman', 'The Hap Richards Show', 'The Ranger Andy Show', 'Cosby', 'Everybody Loves Raymond', 'The King Of Queens', 'The Nanny', 'Mad About You', 'Friends', 'Caroline In The City', 'Frasier', 'Hope & Gloria', 'Cheers'.....

(If the 'McCloud' connection eventually pays off, then there would also be connections to the original 'Battlestar Galactica' and 'Galactica 1980' which would lead to links with 'America 2Night', 'Fernwood 2Night', and 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman'.)

And that's why the Hotel Edison is being honored with induction into the TV Crossover Hall of Fame itself.....

Thanks to Brian-El for help in compiling this entry.....

BCnU!

FROM PAWNEE TO SCRANTON... LITERALLY

Kona Gallagher of CliqueClack TV has made the case for a TV crossover character to be the new manager at the Dunder-Miffline/Sabre branch in Scranton.

All it would take would be a move from Pawnee.....

BCnU!

GIVING HEAD TO AMERICA

On NBC's schedule for the fall is a remake of a Britcom called "Free Agents".

Here's the official press release about the show:

Alex is recently divorced, and Helen lost her fiance a year ago. Obviously, these two are definitely not ready to be dating again. So naturally, they end up in bed together one night. Oops. And they're co-workers. Double oops. At least they have one thing in common: they're both in need of getting back on the horse again but unable to figure out how.

Despite their little romantic encounter, however, they decide to just remain friends. Helen insists this has nothing to do with Alex crying like a baby after sex. And Alex tries to reassure Helen that she'll have no trouble finding a new boyfriend as soon as she removes the pictures of her dead fiance that are all over her apartment. The rest of the office tries to get Alex back out there... but no matter how many douchey shirts they make him buy, he's never going to be a ladies' man. His colleagues aren't actually much help: from the boss who can't wait to hear about Alex's sexual exploits to the eternal "player" who wants Alex as his new wing man. When he finally gets up the courage to go on a date, Helen finds herself just a little jealous... which is what Alex secretly wanted all along. And one drunk-dial later, they end up back in bed together. Looks like this might be the start of something (awkward) big.

This crooked workplace/romantic comedy written by John Enbom (Party Down) and directed by Emmy Award winner Todd Holland (Malcolm in the Middle) proves you can try to put yourself back out there, but sometimes what you need is right in front of you. Even if it's a really bad idea.

The interesting part about this for Toobworld is that Anthony Head has been cast as the boss, Stephen - a role he played in the original series.

I don't know yet if he's playing the same Stephen, Stephen Caudwell, or if he'll have a different last name and a different life previous to this series. The fact that Alex and Helen have the same first names and are in the same situation as their counterparts in the British version may mean this series will have to be transplanted to the land of TV remakes. (I don't know why show creators are so "married" to the names of their original characters! I'm looking at you, 'Shameless'!)

We've seen British TV characters repeat into the Americanized versions before - Jane Carr with 'Dear John', for example. And Richard Ayoade reprised his character of Moss for the pilot of 'The IT Crowd'.

Outside the box, this may mean Head will have to leave 'Merlin', which would be okay by me. I still watch that, even though it had to be removed from the main Toobworld for a variety of reasons, and I think having Uther Pendragon still around was holding back the characters of both Arthur and Merlin.

Just my two quatloos......

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: JOHN MACK

JOHN MACK

AS SEEN IN:
"Too Big To Fail"

AS PLAYED BY:
Tony Shalhoub

From Wikipedia:
John J. Mack (born on November 17, 1944) is the current Chairman of the Board at Morgan Stanley, the New York-based investment bank and brokerage firm. Mack announced his retirement as Chief Executive Officer on September 10, 2009, which was effective January 1, 2010. Former Co-President James P. Gorman succeeded him as CEO.

Mack guided the firm through the financial crisis of 2008, building its capital position and overseeing the firm's conversion to a bank holding company. To stabilize the firm, he forged strategic alliances with China Investment Corporation and Mitsubishi UFJ Group and entered into a joint venture with Smith Barney, forming at the time the world's largest wealth management firm. During the crisis, Mack was advised by U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and the head of the Federal Reserve Bank Ben Bernanke to sell Morgan Stanley. He has stated that during negotiations he was under considerable pressure from the president of the New York Federal Reserve, Tim Geithner, to sell or merge Morgan Stanley to one of his competitors such as JP Morgan. Mack saw this as being contrary to the interests of Morgan Stanley shareholders and employees, similar to the demise of Bear Stearns in a forced sale to JP Morgan for $2 per share, (the deal was later revised to $10 a share), and insisted on finding other sources of financing instead.

BCnU!

ART OF THE DALZIELS

In 1932, Lord Peter Wimsey and his valet Bunter were in Scotland on holiday when they assisted the police in a case dubbed "The Five Red Herrings". Among the policemen involved was Sgt. Dalziel (which is pronounced somewhat like "Dee-el").

It's the Toobworld Central theory of relateeveety that he was the grandfather of Yorkshire Detective Superintendant Andy Dalziel, as seen in the series 'Dalziel & Pascoe'. (From Wikipedia: Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel is described by the actor who portrays him [Warren Clarke] as 'a perfect pig', who is politically incorrect and often insensitive. He likes to do things in the old fashioned way.)

It's standard procedure in Toobworld Central to use an actor's birth year as the same for the character he plays - unless otherwise stated by the script or by the time period in which the character appears. Therefore, Andy Dalziel was probably born circa 1947, just as Warren

Clarke was.

By 1932, Sgt Dalziel could have had a son nearly old enough himself to soon get married and perhaps then move to Yorkshire. For some reason, the name of Andy Dalziel's father is engraved on a memorial in Sheffield. It may have had something to do with World War Two.

Of course, the scripts for the 'Dalziel And Pascoe' series could bleep this all up. Andy's father could have shown up, looking nothing like the actor who played the Sergeant; mention might have been made as to his profession. But it would have to be something from the TV series that would derail this theory. Whatever happened in the novels doesn't apply, even though it's the stated intention of the author.

What happens in the novels is part of the literary universe only, and that's more the purview of Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague DeCamp of the "Incompleat Enchanter" series. Toobworld is the TV Universe and never the twain should meet. (Especially since the novels apparently have a sci-fi bent not seen in the series - or so I'm informed by Wikipedia.)

And based on the liberties taken in most TV adaptations from their bookish sources, they never have that much in common anyway. (For a good example, read "At Bertram's Hotel" by Agatha Christie, and then watch the second TV adaptation of the stories, featuring Geraldine McEwan as Miss Jane Marple.......)

I suppose by extension through the connection to Lord Peter Wimsy, this theory of relateeveety could be considered a minor part of the Wold Newton Universe as well.  But I'll leave that up to Win Scott Eckert to decide; the WNU is his bailiwick and he does a fantastic job in maintaining it.  (Far better than I do with Toobworld!)

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: JIM WILKINSON

JIM WILKINSON

AS SEEN IN:
"Too Big To Fail"

AS PLAYED BY:
Topher Grace

From Wikipedia:
James Richard Wilkinson is a former U.S. government employee who works in the field of public relations (PR). Wilkinson, a Republican, began his government career under former Texas congressman Dick Armey. Before joining the George W. Bush administration, Wilkinson helped sell the idea that Al Gore claimed to have "invented the internet".

While part of the Bush administration, he worked to help convince the U.S. public to support the Iraq War, was involved in the handling of the Jessica Lynch story, and bolstered Condoleezza Rice's image. Overall, Wilkinson was a "well-traveled utility man for the Bush administration's PR team".

While Chief of Staff in the U.S. Treasury department, Wilkinson worked under Hank Paulson. A Wilkinson September 2008 email regarding the government's approach to Lehman Brothers appeared in a 2010 Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission document. Wilkinson emailed "can’t stomach us bailing out lehman. Will be horrible in the press." Wilkinson declined to comment on his emails.

BCnU!

SUPER-SIX LIST: LIFE GOES ON

With Ted Buckland, formerly of 'Scrubs', showing up in Hawaii on the season finale of 'Cougar Town', we got yet another affirmation of one of the basic tenets of Toobworld - just because a TV show may be cancelled, that doesn't mean the lives of its characters have ended. Usually they continue, but out of sight of the audience from the Trueniverse. Occasionally, however, they reappear in a totally different show where we can get reacquainted with them and catch up on what they've been doing during those days of their lives.

So here's a Super Six List of TV characters who reappeared in other shows - for the most part, these shows had no connection to their previous home series.

1] DETECTIVE JOHN MUNCH
From 'Homicide: Life On The Street' to 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'



There was a crossover history between H:LOTS and the mothership of the L&O franchise, and on a personal level it turned out that NYPD Detective Jerry Briscoe once dated one of the Munchkin's wives. When the Baltimore series ended, Munch was dumped by his current wife and he decided to retire from the force there and move to New York City, where he got a job with the SVU.

John Munch is the Crossover King of Toobworld, having also appeared in 'The X-Files', 'The Beat', 'The Wire', working undercover on 'Arrested Development' and in the Tooniverse thanks to 'The Simpsons'.

2] ALAN BRADY
From 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' to 'Mad About You'

There was a span of over thirty years between the show biz legend's appearances in the main Toobworld. (We prefer to ignore his foray into the Tooniverse.) But the years had not diminished his acerbic megalomania. Thanks to Paul Buchman hiring him to narrate a documentary on TV comedy, we learned about some of the salacious details in his Catskills past, as well as getting confirmation about Milton Berle's... talents. ("It's true....!")

3] KOR, KOLOTH, & KANG
From 'Star Trek' to 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'



The first three Klingons in the 'Star Trek' franchise, these three Ancients reunited with Dax, their Trill blood-brother (now symbiotically housed in Jadzia) to exact revenge on an alien villain who murdered their god-child. Although they were successful, two of the three didn't make it; that's all I'm sayin'.

The time span between their appearances was about the same as that of Alan Brady's - in real time, that is. In Toobworld time, over eighty years passed before we saw them again. And it then took an episode of 'Enterprise' to splain why they looked differently from their original appearances.

4] CINNAMON CARTER, JOE MANNIX, & BEN MATLOCK
From 'Mission: Impossible' to 'Diagnosis Murder'

From 'Mannix' to 'Diagnosis Murder'

From 'Matlock' to 'Diagnosis Murder'
In its framework as a medical drama, 'Diagnosis Murder' was mostly a murder mystery. And thanks to writers like Lee Goldberg, there were some crossovers with other TV series. When the father of one of Dr. Sloan's team turned out to be a spy and in trouble, they consulted with Cinnamon who had long since retired from service with the IMF. When private eye Joe Mannix had to re-investigate an old case from his own series, he turned to his personal physician to help tie up the loose ends. (Mark Sloan treated Mannix for all those gun shots and conks to the head. One thing you don't want to see in Toobworld - the shaved head of Joe Mannix!)

And finally, Ben Matlock reluctantly traveled to California from Georgia for Mark Sloan's help,even though the doctor once gave him bad financial advice (which led to Matlock always wearing those cheap suits and noshing on hot dogs.) Within the Toobworld reality, I found it strange that Matlock never noticed Dr. Mark Sloan's resemblance to a judge he knew who had committed a murder......

5] COLONEL WILHELM KLINK & THE PENGUIN
From 'Hogan's Heroes' to 'Batman'

From 'Batman' to 'The Monkees'



There's no connection between these two, really, save that they were both cameos outside their expected venues which eventually connect to each other. Klink showed up in the 1960's in a building which the dynamic duo was scaling. Since he looked no older than he did when he was incompetently in charge of a POW camp more than twenty years before, it's the Toobworld Central theory that he served as the guinea pig for the suspended animation process that was later used to freeze the Fuehrer (as seen in 'The Adventures of Fu Manchu' and 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.')

As for the Penguin, it looks as though he once again escaped from the Gotham Penitentiary and then traveled to Hollywood for a bit of relaxation before once again attempting a crime spree in Gotham City.

6] CAPTAIN KANGAROO
From 'The Captain Kangaroo Show' to 'Day By Day' and 'Murphy Brown'

His own show was no longer entertaining the small fry in the morning - too much advertising revenue could be made instead from talk shows and to hell with the kids! But the Captain still was able to serve as an ambassador at large for their concerns across the country. (Even if his noble intentions were twisted for Murphy Brown's own needs.)

I had to draw the line at some point or it wouldn't have been a Super Six List.  And even then, I cheated with the entry for Colonel Klink and the Penguin, maybe even with the Klingons.  But I could also have added in Sarah Jane Smith, from 'Doctor Who' to 'K-9 And Company' to 'The Sarah Jane Adventures'.  But 'Doctor Who' gets a lot of coverage in this blog so I thought it best to give a showcase to the others.

BCnU!

BUCKLAND IN TV LAND

So, having splained away the more problematical appearance by Abed Nadir in the season finale of 'Cougar Town' back on Friday, I should also turn my attention to the other special guest character, Ted Buckland (from Bill Lawrence's previous series 'Scrubs'.)

Big thanks to Rob for pointing the way to that video!

This was straight-up crossover, pure and simple. Ted (or "Buck", as he hoped people would call him) was in Hawaii, where he served as a Jonathan Richman-like troubadour commentator on the attempts by Jules to convince her son Travis to come back to Florida. Either Ted was in Hawaii because he was on vacation, or because he ran away after losing his love. (Gooch ran off with Hooch; as Laurie told him, "You didn't stand a chance".)

Either way, eventually Ted was going back to wherever Sacred Heart Hospital was. (Somewhere near the Seaworld in California.) Ted is just too tightly wound up and buttoned down to toss aside his life with (nearly) complete abandon.

And eventually, the Hawaiian lifestyle would eventually recognize him as the foreign anti-body in its eco-bio-system and find some way to karmically cast him out. How can I be sure of this? Because Bobby Brady's taboo idol knows all.

A 'Cougar Town' episode set outside their usual environs was the only way Lawrence could do a crossover with 'Scrubs'. If one of the 'Scrubs' characters showed up in West Gulfhaven, the audience would think Sacred Heart Hospital was located nearby. (And there is a Seaworld in Florida.) And a 'Cougar Town' resident wandering the corridors of Sacred Heart would achieve the same effect.

By the way, the options for which 'Cougar Town' character could appear in any revival of 'Scrubs' would have to exclude at least Jules, Ellie, and Jules' dad, Chick, as they all played important roles in that previous series. Too many questions as to why people at Sacred Heart wouldn't notice the resemblances.

So there is no splainin needed for the appearance of Ted, for there was no Zonk. Ted "Buck" Buckland was just enjoying some fun in the sun... and bringing it down to a sad, subterranean level.

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: VINCENT PRICE

VINCENT PRICE

AS SEEN ON:
'Saturday Night Live'

AS PLAYED BY:

DAN AYKROYD

MICHAEL McKEAN

 

BILL HADER

May 27th marked the 100th anniversary of Vincent Price's birth and at Toobworld Central isn't done with celebrating the life of this legendary actor, art connoisseur, and gourmet cook.

But I'm not the right choice to fete this man properly. Instead, I'd like to point you towards the following blogs by some of my comrades which give great insights into the man and some of his roles.......

FILMICABILITY

THE FLAMING NOSE
both by Dean Treadway

A SHROUD OF THOUGHTS

THRILLING DAYS OF YESTERYEAR

EDWARD COPELAND ON FILM... AND MORE
Both by Ivan Shreve

And if you visit Hulu, you can find several of the Vincent Price TV specials that Bill Hader has lampooned so well over the last few years on SNL. (Currently there are four available to be seen. Select "TV Clips" for Type and "Saturday Night Live" for Show to winnow it down to that quartet.)

A Trilogy of Terror for Tuesday!

BCnU!

MEMORIAL DAY

Thank you......

MEMORIAL DAY: REMEMBERING SGT. "CHIP" SAUNDERS

SGT. "CHIP" SAUNDERS

It's my opinion, but I'm pretty sure it's held by a lot of people, that Sgt. Saunders was the best TV soldier to come out of World War II in Toobworld, perhaps the best TV soldier no matter the war or conflict. Over a five year span in Trueniverse time (but the span of one year only within their own reality), we followed Saunders and the men of King Company through France once they landed during the Normandy invasion of D-Day.

On this Memorial Day, I wanted to honor his memory with a collection of YouTube clips culled from the TV series 'Combat!'  (Along with actor Vic Morrow and the other regular actors from the series, keep an eye out for stars like James Caan, Jack Lord, Bill Bixby, Richard Basehart, and Eddie Albert.)

I'd like to think that "Chip" Saunders (Not many dared to call him "Chip" to his face!) survived the War. But as he was born arround 1911, I doubt he'd still be alive today. It could be that after the War, he settled down... perhaps in California, somewhere around Orange County. And there, in 'The O.C.', he would eventually have a grandson named after him... but that kid wouldn't be half the man his grandfather was....

Artwork by Ralph Max

MEMORIAL DAY: REMEMBERING EUGENE SLEDGE, AS SEEN ON TV

EUGENE SLEDGE

AS SEEN IN:
'The Pacific'

AS PLAYED BY:
Joseph Mazzello

From Wikipedia:
Eugene Bondurant Sledge (November 4, 1923 – March 3, 2001) was a United States Marine, university professor, and author. His 1981 memoir "With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa" chronicled his combat experiences during World War II and was subsequently used as source material for Ken Burn's PBS documentary, The War, as well as the HBO miniseries The Pacific, in which he is portrayed by Joseph Mazzello.

Sledge was enrolled in the Marion Military Institute but instead chose to volunteer for the U.S. Marine Corps in December 1942. He was placed in the V-12 officer training program and was sent to Georgia Tech where he and half of his detachment "flunked out" so they would be allowed to serve their time as enlistees and not "miss the war". Once he was out of school he was assigned duty as an enlisted man and was eventually assigned to K (King) Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division (K/3/5). He served as a Private First Class in the Pacific Theater and saw combat as a 60 mm mortarman at Peleliu and Okinawa. When fighting grew too close for effective use of the mortar he served in other duties such as stretcher bearer and providing rifle fire.

During his service, Sledge kept notes of what happened in his pocket sized New Testament. When the war ended, he took these notes and compiled them into the memoir that was to be known as "With the Old Breed". After being posted to Beijing (sometimes called Peking, but then known as Peiping), China after the war, he was discharged from the Marine Corps in February 1946 with the rank of Corporal.

Eugene Sledge died after a long battle with stomach cancer in 2001.

Toobworld Central salutes Eugene Sledge. Good night and may God bless.

BCnU..........

SKED ALERT - 'GAME OF THRONES' ON HBO

Here's a reminder - tonight HBO is presenting the seventh episode in their new series 'Game Of Thrones':

And here are a couple of scenes to give you a taste of what's to come.....

I'm guessing she'd answer the White Walkers......

I'll let you in on a little secret: 'Game Of Thrones' has a lock on best new series for this year's Toobits Awards. And it's racking up the nominations for a lot of other categories besides!

'Game Of Thrones', Episode 7 ("You Win Or You Die") airs tonight on HBO at 9 PM EDT. Check your local listings for the schedule in your own time zone......

BCnU!

MENTOS & COKE FOR MENTAL KOOKS

It's time for a snack. How 'bout some Mentos and Coke? There's a new delivery system......

BCnU!

MMMM-MMMMM! IT'S BABY-KICKIN' GOOD!

We have to pay the bills here at Toobworld Central, and that means showing commercials......

BCnU!

WNU-TOOB: IF ONLY.....

And I couldn't finish off the topic of 'Barnaby Jones' without this little oddity.....

Not the way I'd want these two great characters to cross over, but that sampling of the 'Barnaby Jones' theme music makes it hard to resist!

BCnU!

BARNABY JONESING

Well, I don't know about you, and frankly it doesn't matter, but I didn't satisfy my need to hear that 'Barnaby Jones' theme music......

This first clip was for an imporant episode as far as Toobworld is concerned, since William Conrad guest-starred as his character of Frank 'Cannon':
 

One thing you may notice is that by the time of the fourth season, the theme music had altered slightly.......
 

By the time Mark Shera joined the cast (probably to help the show gain some younger viewers), the theme music had become a bit sluggish.  Also, it looks like they were really scraping to find guest stars by this point.  (Maybe it was an effort to save money?)  Martin Kove is the only name I recognized and he wouldn't become "famous" until 'Cagney & Lacey'......
 

But the guest star factor wasn't always a problem during the Jedediah years: 
 

Not all of these guest stars may be recognizable to you, but great roles in other series and/or movies come to mind when I see the likes of Janis, Balin, Masters, Chapman, and especially Bert Freed.

BCnU!

A QUINN MARTIN-STEVEN MOFFAT M*A*S*H-UP

I know American "Who" fans are going through withdrawal this weekend since BBC-America pre-empted 'Doctor Who' for Memorial Day Weekend content, and in the middle of a two-parter at that. So here's another video to help stem the cravings.....

I could have asked for a better voice-over, one more in keeping with that original deep voice. And it probably should have been a mash-up in the titles as well - it should have been "Barnaby Who". But otherwise, the 'Barnaby Jones' theme music makes everything better.

And at least thanks to this mash-up, I now know why the character of Jorah Marmont in 'Game Of Thrones' looks so familiar to me. I really liked Bishop Octavian in that "Weeping Angels" two-parter and I still hold out hope that the angel didn't kill him; rather it sent him back in Time. We may yet meet him again in 'Doctor Who'.....

BCnU!

PSA TIME: THE "R" WORD

I have a lot of fun here during the Video Weekends, but sometimes I have to pull back and offer a showcase for an important issue. This is one of them:

And in a similar vein (sorry about that pun - you'll see....), here's Friday's Birthday Boy:

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: DENNIS HOPPER

Dennis Hopper died on this date last year......

DENNIS HOPPER

AS SEEN IN:
"James Dean: Race With Destiny"

AS PLAYED BY:
Wil. Hall

From Wikipedia:
Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954, and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Giant (1956). During the next 10 years, Hopper appeared frequently on television in guest roles, and by the end of the 1960s had played supporting roles in several films.

He directed and starred in Easy Rider (1969), winning an award at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as co-writer. "With its portrait of counterculture heroes raising their middle fingers to the uptight middle-class hypocrisies, Easy Rider became the cinematic symbol of the 1960s, a celluloid anthem to freedom, macho bravado and anti-establishment rebellion." Film critic Matthew Hays notes that "no other persona better signifies the lost idealism of the 1960s than that of Dennis Hopper."

He was unable to build on his success for several years, until a featured role in "Apocalypse Now" (1979) brought him attention. He subsequently appeared in "Rumble Fish" (1983) and "The Osterman Weekend" (1983), and received critical recognition for his work in "Blue Velvet" and "Hoosiers", with the latter film garnering him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He directed "Colors" (1988) and played the villain in "Speed" (1994). Hopper's later work included a leading role in the television series 'Crash'.

Hopper was also a prolific and acclaimed photographer, a profession he began in the 1960s.
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