SUMMER READS

My goal is to read more on my summer vacations rather than watch a lot of DVDs. (Although I do plan on bringing 'The Sarah Jane Adventures' to share with my seven year old nephew.)

During the two blocks of two week vacations, I'm already planning on finishing "All-Consuming Fire" which teamed up Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson with the Seventh Incarnation of the Doctor from 'Doctor Who'. And then there's "Mirkwood" a novel about J.R.R. Tolkien.

This may make a nice companion piece to the latter.....

BCnU!

STREEP THE BEATLES!

Supposedly that's Meryl Streep on the left hand side in this CBS news report about kids waiting to see the Beatles.

Years later, she mentioned going to see the Beatles......

But her memories don't seem to jibe with that footage. Of course, maybe she already ditched the sign....

Did you know I can take part in the Kevin Bacon game because of Meryl Streep?  Along with a lot of other UConn Drama students back in the mid 1970's, I was an extra in a TV movie she did called "The Deadliest Season".  (The original title was better - "Penalty Killer".) 

She played Michael Moriarty's wife.  If you ever get the chance to see it, I show up in nine pretty good close-ups in the first half hour at various hockey games.  After that, it's mostly courtroom and domestic scenes.

But she then appeared in "River Wild" with Kevin Bacon, so I can make that connection in two moves.

BCnU!

LI'L DOCTOR

Haven't we all wanted to play the Doctor at some point?  This kid's off to a good start....

BCnU!

STONE TREKKIN' ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

There's at least one "Stone Trek" cartoon to be found on YouTube and the folks behind that have taken their Flinstones meet Star Trek mash-up and applied to this old novelty song by the Firm.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: TIMOTHY GEITHNER [THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM]

TIMOTHY GEITHNER

AS SEEN IN:
"The Last Days Of Lehman Brothers"

AS PLAYED BY:
Alex Jennings

TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time

Click here if you want to see Geithner as he appeared not only in the TV dimension known (for now) as the Land of Remakes, but also in Skitlandia.....

And since it's Saturday and we're kicking off our video weekend, here's the cold open from a 'Saturday Night Live' episode with the Secretary of the Treasury......

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD: PETER FALK

Good night and may God bless.

Rest in peace, Sir.  And thank you......

OOH, LA LAW

ROSE:

"Every Sunday I watch 'la Law'."

DOROTHY:
"That's 'L.A. Law'!"
(Later)
SOPHIA:

"Very nice 'counselor'!

Just exactly how close are you to the TV when you're watching 'la Law'?"

'The Golden Girls'

With this example of a Zonk, there's no mention of the MacKenzie-Brackman law firm. So it could be that 'L.A. Law' in Toobworld was the generic title for a reality show, along the same lines as 'L.A. Ink'... only about lawyers.

That reality show could still have been about MacKenzie-Brackman, especially since some of the kids left their zip code comfort zone of 'Beverly Hills 90210' and drove by the office building where the law firm was located - and one of them mentioned that he didn't watch the show.

Three of the actors who starred in 'L.A. Law' in the Trueniverse were mentioned in connection to the show - Harry Hamlin (on 'Six Feet Under'), Jimmy Smits (on 'Married... With Children'), and Corbin Bernsen (in episodes of 'Just Shoot Me', 'Seinfeld', and 'Matlock'). But here's a possible splainin: they all appeared as themselves on the reality show called 'L.A. Law', with the law firm handling cases for them.

Another mention of interest - in 'Psych', Henry Spenser was a likely candidate to be the identical cousin of Arnold Becker. And back in 1989, Henry thought the show would be a passing fad (despite the involvement of his cousin.) With all of these mentions - even into the new millennium! -  if it is a reality show in Toobworld, it proved to have legs.

Finally, Alan Rachins appeared in an episode of 'Eli Stone' in which he was credited as a "Familiar Lawyer". Longtime visitors to Toobworld know that I don't put much stock in credits, but I think it would be safe to assume that he was actually Douglas Brackman.

But here's the thing - representing Eli at his disbarment hearing, this "familiar lawyer" was working for a law firm called McKinley-Breckman, not MacKenzie-Brackman.

It's a bit intricate, and built on sand, but here's how it might work.....

'L.A. Law' went off the air in 1994, but its last appearance in Toobworld was in 2002 with the reunion TV movie. So in that six year span, until Rachins showed up in that 'Eli Stone' episode, anything could have happened to Douglas Brackman.

It could be that he finally committed an act of sexual deviance so heinous that the partners of the firm had no choice but to convene and drum him out of the firm with a vote. Desperate to still trade on the firm's name to build up business for himself, Douglas could have incorporated himself as a law firm with fictional partners named McKinley and Breckman. (We've seen that happen before in Toobworld - 'Eisenhower & Lutz'.)

Douglas may have wanted to make the potential client think he was still affiliated with McKenzie-Brackman, hoping they weren't too familiar with the original firm's name. Eli Stone would have known the difference, but it wouldn't have mattered. He wanted the best lawyer for the situation, and probably no one knew the intricacies of office politics in a law firm better than Douglas Brackman.

Anyhoo, it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble.....

BCnU!

WNU-TOOB: PEERING INTO ANOTHER UNIVERSE.....

This past Tuesday, Titan Books went to street with its new edition of a Philip Jose Farmer classic, "The Peerless Peer". The tale is one of the foundations for the concept of the Wold Newton Universe, with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson meeting the Lord of the Apes, Tarzan.

I still have my paperback from the mid-70's, back when I devoured anything I could find about Holmes. I always had a fondness for the pastiches, since that was how I first got into Sherlockiana, via Nicholas Meyers' "The Seven Per Cent Solution". And after reading the omnibus collection of Conan Doyle's works, I think "The Peerless Peer" was next on the list.

This all followed on the heels of my reading the "Incompleat Enchanter" series of stories by Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague deCamp, and the combination of the two were the guiding forces into my own foray into shared universes with the Toobworld Dynamic.

Having made frequent visits to the Wold Newton site run by Mr. Farmer's worthy acolyte Win Scott Eckert, and having read several of Win's books on the subject, I feel it's time to read "The Peerless Peer" once more. Although it was a "cracking read" the first time round, I'm sure there were plenty of references to other sources that went right over my head back then. Now I'll be able to more fully enjoy the experience.

And I plan to order this edition to do so, for two reasons. One is that I'm not sure my battered old paperback from thirty plus years back should be subjected to any further wear and tear - much safer to leave it tucked away in the crate full of other books on Sherlock Holmes.

The second reason is that I want to do my part in showing support for this new line from Titan Books. See, on the back cover the novel is trumpeted as being a "Wold Newton Universe Novel". And should Titan Books see that there is interest in such a line, other books may follow. And fans of the Wold Newton concept can only benefit from that.

Of course, from the Toobworld perspective it doesn't work, unfortunately. The adventure takes place as the stage is set for World War I, and while the TV Sherlock Holmes would be present during that time period, the tele-Tarzan was to be found in the late 1960's. Still, that's all for the best, I think. The differences between the two shared universes might spark interest in them both from each concept's fans.

If "The Peerless Peer" sounds like something you might be interested in as well, check out these links:

The Peerless Peer by Philip José Farmer - Direct from Titan Books - Afterword by Win Scott Eckert

* Amazon

* BN

* BN NOOKbook (eBook)

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: JOHN MACK, MACH II

JOHN MACK

AS SEEN IN:
"The Last Days Of Lehman Brothers"

AS PLAYED BY:
Henry Goodman

TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time

Click here if you want to see John Mack as he appeared in the TV dimension known (for now) as the Land of Remakes.....

BCnU!

THE HAT SQUAD: DON DIAMOND

Chief Wild Eagle & Crazy Cat
'F Troop'

Crazy Cat: Friends, Hekawis, countrymen, we are gathered here today to say good-bye to Chief Wild Eagle who has gone to last big pow wow in sky. He was good chief, wise chief, with heart as big as his mouth.

Wild Eagle: Again you try to bury me?

Crazy Cat: Chief Wild Eagle. Just practicing speech I wrote for when we wrap your skin in buffalo hide, put it on your favorite pony, and send him to...

Wild Eagle: Never mind the funeral arrangements.

Crazy Cat: Must be prepared chief. You could go any minute.

Wild Eagle: That's why you practice funeral speech?

Crazy Cat: Have to practice. Would you want me to say burial speech for great chief off top of head?

Wild Eagle: You keep practicing speech and you get tomahawk off top of head.

('F Troop')

Don Diamond, who played Crazy Cat on the anachronistic Western sitcom 'F Troop', passed away on June 19th at the age of 90.

What I always liked about his character was his line delivery, the off-beat inflection in the way he spoke. There was something to suggest he may have been a precursor to the hippies, that he might have been strung out on Kickapoo Joy Juice (mixing references). And then again, it was the kind of voice that suggested he really was crazy. His interest in the possible demise of Wild Eagle certainly was an indication that he might hasten that eventuality.

I have to admit that he did fall into that category of "I thought he was already dead", I'm afraid. But I'm glad to see that I was wrong for as long as I was.

Good night and may God bless.

BCnU.......

THE O'HARA LINE: A THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY

When 'Psych' returns for a new season, William Shatner will be making a special guest appearance in an episode - playing the father of Detective Juliet O'Hara. Frank O'Hara is a con man, long estranged from his daughter (probably because of the career path she chose.) But he comes to Santa Barbara to mend their relationship. (I wonder if this means that his character is dying?)

This would mean that he's also the father of Ewan O'Hara as well, but I don't know if John Cena is returning to reprise that role. (If I was in charge, I'd let the upcoming episode be Shatner's showcase and then bring them both back for an O'Hara family reunion - if Pops O'Hara survives his debut, that is.)

As the Toobworld caretaker, I'll be curious to see if Shatner's character mentions his own Dad; because as it stands now, I have a theory of relateeveety that says Juliet's grandfather was the chief of police in Gotham City. And that Jules chose to follow in his footsteps rather than her own father's.



I'm tempted to add Tim O'Hara, the Los Angeles Sun reporter who co-habited with an extraterrestrial humanoid during the 1960's to the family tree, but I hesitate to say that he was also a son of Chief O'Hara. It would be easier to make the claim that he was the son of Chief O'Hara's brother, thus making him Frank O'Hara's cousin. (Tim had a cousin Harvey and a great-uncle named Shamus.)

The age difference between William Shatner and Stafford Repp was a lot closer than appeared, but Repp played Chief O'Hara as somewhat older than he really was at the time.

Since the fashion sense in Gotham City was very conservative and a bit out of date, it might be possible that Frank O'Hara visited his dear old Dad at Gotham City police headquarters wearing a suit like this.....



But then again, being a con man, he may have avoided Gotham City and its Dynamic Duo crime-fighters at the cost of his relationship with his old man........

SHOWS CITED:

'Psych'

'Batman'

'My Favorite Martian'

'Star Trek'

BCnU!

"VEENA SUD," SAID VEENA SUD.....

Near the end of my Toobworld novel, a race of elves are created after the "Big Hiatus". Along with the puppet trees, they are a tip of my hat to the influence which J.R.R. Tolkien has had on me.

I've even suggested a language for these elves (whom I think now will probably resemble the Targaryens from 'Game Of Thrones' as their TV influence), which I may as well call toobish. It was created from the names of people involved in the production of TV back home in the real world, and a few examples are given - "mirren" means twin, "tennant" means decade, "pertwee" is a child, "wendt" would be all the permutations of "to go", and "zmed" would be something you don't want to step in.....

Thanks to the season finale of 'The Killing' (which for me is now the series finale as well), I have a complete phrase to be used by the elves, these kendal (for want of a better collective name in toobish for them) - "veena sud".

Veena Sud is the producer who adapted a well-received international murder mystery TV show and reduced it, maligned it, ruined it, with this sluggish, dull, drawn-out affair peopled with paper-thin cyphers for characters. And then as the final thumb in the eye (a turn of phrase from Alan Sepinwall) for the audience, she denied them the opportunity to learn who the murderer was at the end of the season, instead holding off until next season for that revelation... if then. She claims that it was never stated that the answer would be revealed by season's end, but it was implied with the way the show was advertised ("Who killed Rosie Larsen?").

Veena Sud took a promising property and trampled it all into a steaming pile of zmed.

So "veena sud" is a phrase that basically means what Veena Sud has told an audience who put good faith into sticking through the whole sad/sorry series, waiting for an answer.

"Veena sud" - "Bleep you."


BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: DICK FULD... ONCE MORE

DICK FULD

AS SEEN IN:
"The Last Days Of Lehman Brothers"

AS PLAYED BY:
Corey Johnson

TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time

Click here to read about Dick Fuld from an earlier ASOTV showcase.

He looks just like another rich bleeper in Toobworld, who's currently living in an underground bunker in Utah. At some point next year, the Gallifreyan Time Lord will meet Henry Van Statten.....

BCnU!

REMAINS TO BE SEEN, 2011 - BOILERPLATE

A big thanks to fellow crossover enthusiast Jose Ricardo Bondoc for bringing this to my attention:

BERKELEY, CA (6/2)- Local artists and authors Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett have created a steampunk sensation in the form of the robot known as Boilerplate. According to their site, "Boilerplate was a mechanical man developed by Professor Archibald Campion during the 1880s and unveiled at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition... Built in a small Chicago laboratory, Boilerplate was originally designed as a prototype soldier for use in "preventing the deaths of men in the conflicts of nations."..

Although it was the only such prototype, Boilerplate was eventually able to exercise its proposed function by participating in several combat actions, charging alongside such famous figures as Teddy Roosevelt and Lawrence of Arabia.... Professor Campion and his robot also circled the planet with the U.S. Navy, trekked to the South Pole, made silent movies, and hobnobbed with the likes of Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla....

Boilerplate is one of history's great ironies, a technological breakthrough that languished in obscurity—until now...." Recently this reporter had the chance to interview the artist and author behind Boilerplate, and discuss the secrets behind his creation, and the upcoming J.J. Abrams film currently in production.

Here's the link to the interview in Facebook:

Usually at the beginning of the year, I offer up a character that deserves to have a live-action televersion adaptation. In the past I've made the case for comic book characters like Zatanna (which did come true) and Green Lantern (which won't happen now until the movie franchise finally fades away), and for characters from novels like Silver John the Balladeer and Harry Flashman (who technically exists in Toobworld - in an adaptation of the original novel in which he appeared, "Tom Brown's School Days").

Reading through this article and reading about Boilerplate elsewhere online, I think this would make for a great little series on Syfy. Perhaps it could have the same framework like 'New Amsterdam' - with a story set in the present (or some set point in History) but with flashbacks to some point in Boilerplate's "life" interacting with historical figures.

So hopefully - if Abrams' movie is just successful enough to spark interest, but not so boffo at the box office to get tied up in movie sequels - there may be a decision to bring Boilerplate to Toobworld.

BCnU!

ASOTV: COMING SOON TO A TOOBWORLD NEAR YOU

This autumn, BBC4 will be presenting a dramatization of the religious controversy that surrounded the Monty Python movie "The Life Of Brian" back in 1979.


So there will be plenty of fodder for the ASOTV gallery with actors portraying the members of the Python troupe. And I wouldn't be surprised if the two right-wing religious opponents who tried to parry with John Cleese and Michael Palin on a British TV show on the subject - even though they didn't see the first fifteen minutes of the movie and went through the whole film thinking Graham Chapman's portrayal of Brian was actually supposed to be that of Jesus Christ.

Hopefully it will eventually find its way over to BBC-America or PBS. But considering the topic and the troglodyte thinking of the Far Right in this country, I may have to look for it on DVD or via (ahem!) other means.....

Here's a list of the actors to play the Monty Python gang:

John Cleese - Darren Boyd

Michael Palin - Charles Edwards

Eric Idle - Steve Punt

Graham Chapman - Tom Fisher

Terry Jones - Rufus Jones

Terry Gilliam - Phil Nichol

"'Holy Flying Circus' is not a biopic, but a fantastical re-imagining of the Pythons' struggle with censorship in the run-up to the release of Life of Brian," said a BBC spokeswoman.

The movie will probably end up in that TV dimension that holds other behind the scenes depictions of various TV productions from either side of the Atlantic....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: HANK PAULSON... AGAIN

HANK PAULSON

AS SEEN IN:
"The Last Of The Lehman Brothers"

AS PLAYED BY:
James Cromwell

TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time

Click here if you want to read the original ASOTV about the Secretary of the Treasury - as played by William Hurt in "Too Big To Fail".

BCnU!

1:16 PM - IT'S SUMMER!

TUESDAY MORNING WITH THE DOCTOR

Thanks, Pat Coleman!

BCnU!

"FRANKLIN & BASH": WELCOME TO THE CLUB!

From 'Guiding Light'

With their second episode out of the box, 'Franklin & Bash' made their Toobworld occupancy legit. (The Toobworld Dynamic believes just about every show belongs in Earth Prime-Time; it just might take some time to find the proof to make it official.)

While doing a little research into their firm's latest murder case, Jared Franklin discovered that a large bet had been placed at an online betting parlor against a successful outcome.

To illustrate the case for bettors, the website used the cover of the National Inquisitor, which splashed lurid details about the case: "She Came Upstairs And Killed Me.")

In 2003, the National Inquisitor became a member of the TV Crossover Hall Of Fame for its use in episodes of 'The Naked Truth', 'Guiding Light', 'Wiseguy', 'Columbo', 'Alf', and 'The Bold & The Beautiful', among others.

And now we can add 'Franklin & Bash' to the mix!

BCnU!

TELEFFLUVIAN QUICKIES

By next TV season, the Inner Toob showcase "As Seen On TV" will have some fresh material to draw from: Rob Lowe as Drew Peterson, the Illinois cop suspected of killing his third and fourth wives will be seen in a new TV movie. Kaley Cuocco will co-star, probably as one of those wives.

~

I should have saved last Monday's ASOTV showcase of Philip II of Spain for later in the week:

June 15
1580 – Philip II of Spain declares William the Silent to be an outlaw.

June 16
1586 – Mary, Queen of Scots, recognizes Philip II of Spain as her heir and successor.

Well, at least as far as June 16 goes, I preferred using Stan Laurel as a birthday salute to my brother AJ.

~

Sunday night, the season finales of both 'Game Of Thrones' and 'The Killing' were broadcast (on HBO and AMC, respectively). Both shows asked their audiences to toss away their calcified TV viewing expectations - one by killing off the main character an episode shy of the season finale; the other by going the long-form route to focus on only one murder case over the span of the whole season.

'Game Of Thrones' succeeded - I can't wait for Spring 2012 so that I might once more travel through the lands of Westeros again. 'The Killing' did not - instead of wrapping up the case, the producers decided to turn the ending into a cliff-hanger as leverage for a new season, which AMC granted them. (They may not have come right out and said the murder of Rosie Larsen would be solved by season's end, but it was implied and assumed and no effort was made to dispell those beliefs. Fine. But let's see how low the audience figures are when the show returns - I know I'm not returning ever again. I'll keep track via online episode guides only long enough to find out who the true killer was.)

Both shows will get plenty of notice in the 2011 Toobits Awards at the end of the year, but at different ends of the spectrum.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: JOHN THAIN

JOHN THAIN

AS SEEN IN:
"The Last Of The Lehman Brothers"

AS PLAYED BY:
Ben Daniels

TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time

JOHN THAIN

AS SEEN IN:
"Too Big To Fail"

AS PLAYED BY:
Matthew Modine

TV DIMENSION:
Land of Remakes

From Wikipedia:
John Alexander Thain (born May 26, 1955) is an American businessman, investment banker, and currently the Chairman & CEO, of the CIT Group.

Thain was the last chairman and chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch before its merger with Bank of America. He was designated to become president of global banking, securities, and wealth management at the newly combined company, but he resigned on January 22, 2009. Ken Lewis, CEO of Bank of America, reportedly forced Thain to resign after several controversies, such as losses at Merrill Lynch proved to be far larger than previously estimated, and over the awarding of executive bonuses.

Several media sources have nicknamed Thain "Superman", due to his facial resemblance to the character's alter-ego Clark Kent.

I don't know why, but my original source of publicity materials didn't include a picture of Matthew Modine as Thain. (Love that name!) But that's a good thing, because now I can have a "Two For Tuesday" edition of the ASOTV showcase with both televersions being used for the first time.

I'm curious how well Daniels did with the accent; he certainly fails with the "Looks Like Clark Kent" description.  (Not that Modine is that close a resemblance.....)

BCnU!

FRIDAY MUG SHOT REVEALED: MARKING BOLAM

So the answer to Friday's Mug-Shot challenge was James Bolam, which Heartbeatoz of Australia posted within twenty minutes after it went up. Pretty impressive.....

Bolam was seen as Roberts in a 1971 episode of 'The Rivals Of Sherlock Holmes' ("The Case Of The Dixon Torpedo"), which featured Jonathan Pryde as the rival of Holmes as an investigator.

Roberts worked for the inventor F. Graham Dixon, but at the same time he was working as a spy, stealing the plans for the Dixon torpedo and passing them off to a man named "Hunter" (or "Jaeger" in the man's original German tongue.)

Jaeger was an intermediary for the Russian spy agency of the time.

Although Roberts quickly changed his ways and helped set a trap for Jaeger, it's likely he went to jail. If so, he may have left behind a baby daughter (although he was likely not married, if you catch my drift. Nudge nudge. Wink wink.). That little girl could have grown up to marry a respectable man by the name of Halford and had a son named John. But throughout his life, John Halford would be known as "Jack".

Jack Halford became a police detective, retiring after his wife Mary was killed in a hit-and-run "accident". He later accepted an offer by the daughter of an old colleague to join her new team of retired detectives; they would investigate unsolved and closed cases (UCOS). It was during that new chapter of his life that Jack discovered that his wife's killer was a local gangster who had long been one of Jack's adversaries.

So that's the theory of relateeveety - Roberts is Jack Halford's grandfather. Of course, it could that Jack Halford's grandparent was instead Maggie Roberts, Roberts' sister, who got him his job by being fast and loose with her charms on Old Man Dixon.

If so, she could also have given birth to a son, named Halford after his father, and he'd grow up to be Jack's Dad. Either way, the family tele-genetics would be strong enough to repeat from grand-uncle or grandfather to Jack Halford.

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: KEN LEWIS

Since it was James Bolam's role as Ken Lewis that led to my discovery of "The Last Of The Lehman Brothers", we'll kick off this special week of ASOTV with him.....

KENNETH LEWIS

AS SEEN IN:
"The Last Of The Lehman Brothers"

AS PLAYED BY:
James Bolam

From Wikipedia:
Kenneth D. "Ken" Lewis (born April 9, 1947) is the former CEO, President, and Chairman of Bank of America, the largest bank in the United States and second largest in the world. On September 30th, 2009 Bank of America confirmed that Ken Lewis would be retiring by the end of the year. He was replaced by Brian Moynihan as President and CEO and Walter Massey as Chairman of the Board.

During the financial crisis of 2008, he engineered the takeover of Merrill Lynch for $50 billion.

On April 29, 2009, Bank of America shareholders narrowly voted to separate the positions of Chairman of the Board and CEO, effectively removing CEO Lewis from his position as Chairman of the Board of BofA, though he remained both the bank's president and its CEO.

On September 30, 2009, Lewis announced his retirement from Bank of America effective as of December 31, 2009. Lewis released the statement "The Merrill Lynch and Countrywide integrations are on track and returning value already. Our board of directors and our senior management include more talent, and more diversity of talent, than at any time in this company's history. We are in position to begin to repay the federal government's TARP investments. For these reasons, I decided now is the time to begin to transition to the next generation of leadership at Bank of America." It was reported that this move was his own decision and that he did not receive pressure from the bank's Board of Directors.

Based on the company's most recent proxy statement, his full pension benefits total $53 million. Critics of the financial sector's salary scale have cited this sum as indicative of poor oversight by the board of directors and as an example of inflated executive compensation. As his plan dates back more than seven years, he is still entitled to full benefits. Bank of America has since revised their compensation plan for retiring executives.

In October, 2009, at the suggestion of Kenneth Feinberg, the U.S. Treasury's special master for compensation, Lewis decided to forgo salary or bonus in 2009. His 2008 salary was about $1.5 million. "He has taken home $148.8 million from cash and stock sales since taking over the bank in 2001, according to Equilar, a compensation research firm. He is also leaving with more than $135 million in retirement benefits, including the pension and $10 million in life insurance benefits, according to an analysis of corporate filings by James F. Reda & Associates, an independent consulting firm."

The role of Ken Lewis must have been considered insignificant to the casting directors for "Too Big To Fail"; it was given to a relatively unknown actor named Robert Vincent Smith. (Which is not a slap against his acting talents, just his reputation......)

BCnU!

LEHMAN BROTHERS - A TELEVISION REVISION

Well, this is an interesting development.....

The concept of Toobworld is always in flux, constantly evolving, constantly being rewritten. For the most part, the blame (as such) falls on me - sometimes I'll make statements that have to be retracted because I wasn't so thorough in my research. Other times it's due to revisions or new additions to the established canon of a series. So in that way, the Toobworld Dynamic is like the medium it studies.

Two examples of both from the same show:
1) I claimed in a blog post that the new version of 'Human Target' could exist in the same TV dimension as the original, which starred Rick Springfield. (It's existenc as a comic book doesn't enter the equation.) I had the splainins and everything! But then they had to do an episode with a totally different Royal Family of Great Britain, which tossed them into an alternate TV dimension from Toobworld and the Trueniverse.

2) Because of that, I added the new 'Human Target' to a Super-Six List of TV shows that could be set in the 'West Wing' universe. But as one of Team Toobworld pointed out, I could have held on to that claim if it was just Queen Elizabeth who had been mentioned on 'The West Wing'. (We saw a totally different Queen Elizabeth in the 'Human Target world, and she was kind of hot in an older woman sort of way. And it will probably turn out she's younger than me, but still.... Hot!)

But as the Team Toobworld member pointed out, 'The West Wing' mentioned other members of the true Royal Family (either Prince Edward or Prince Andrew) who were specific to those found in Toobworld as well as the real world.

This is why I'm thankful that I have Team Toobworld - I really depend on them!

So that's all meandering blather to lead up to the latest revision......

In promoting the HBO movie about the 2008 financial collapse, I ran a series of As Seen On TV features for each of the main characters, all drawn from real life. And for all of them, I stated that they were to be found in Earth Prime-Time, the main Toobworld.

(With Timothy Geithner, I used him for the "Two For Tuesday" edition, as he had also been portrayed on 'Saturday Night Live', placing that portrayal in Skitlandia. And for Warren Buffett, who played himself in at least one other Earth Prime-Time series ['All My Children'], I claimed that the version played by Ed Asner was a quantum leaper.)

A basic tenet for Earth Prime-Time inclusion is that old "First Come, First Served" rule. Whichever version of a project is broadcast first, that has the right to remain in the main Toobworld. The next would go to the "Land of Remakes" then on to other dimensional choices like "the evil mirror universe", but falling short of the Tooniverse or Skitlandia (unless it's animated or a comedy sketch, respectively.)

There are exceptions to every rule, of course. The most famous one for this situation is that of Sherlock Holmes. There were two earlier TV series about the great detective that I know of - one with Ronald Howard, the other with Peter Cushing. But it's the series with Jeremy Brett as Holmes whom I've decided should be the permanent tenant of Earth Prime-Time, because his series had the most adaptations of the original stories written by Dr. Watson and edited by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

(I may yet keep the Ronald Howard version in Earth Prime-Time, if I can successfully make the argument that his Holmes was an imposter. Peter Cushing's portrayal, just based on the five remaining episodes in existence, all from the canon, should go to the Land of Remakes. Not only because it was the remake, but also because they were that good.)

Again I'm blathering.

So anyhoo, I was doing some research on James Bolam for a theory of relateeveety connected to the Friday Mug-Shot feature when I discovered that he had been in a TV movie about the 2008 financial collapse made by the BBC in 2009, well over a year before HBO's "Too Big To Fail".

"The Last Days Of Lehman Brothers" has most of the same real world players as "Too Big To Fail" (played by a few ex-pat Americans for the most part), but with some exceptions.

Bolam's character of Ken Lewis, for example - he appears in "Too Big To Fail", but not in big enough a capacity to merit a name actor with star power for the role. Warren Buffett? Not even listed among the "dramatis personae" to be found at the IMDb.com. If he's not even in the movie, then there's no need for that 'Quantum Leap' splainin, at least in Earth Prime-Time......

As for Jim Wilkinson, played by Topher Grace in "Too Big To Fail", he could have been changed to a character named Zack played by Michael Landes in the Brit version. I'd have to see it to be sure.

So because it aired first, "The Last Days of Lehman Brothers" will now be considered the official record of those events in Earth Prime-Time. And "Too Big To Fail" will be packed off to the Land of Remakes. (I really do need to come up with a catchy name for that world.....)

All this week, we'll be running a new batch of As Seen On TV showcases for the main players, starting with the man who started the ball rolling - James Bolam's portrayal of Ken Lewis.

BCnU!

A LI'L DEBBIE

And we'll close out this Video Weekend with a little music by Debbie Harry. The rest of the scene has been filtered through France...

Au revoir!

TELEVIS-IAN

This is going out to my nephew Ian. Here his worlds collide, as he's a big fan of the Bruins and of Wiz Kalifa....

BCnU!

COMING SOON!

Continuing the Muppet superhero theme from yesterday....

BCnU!

ALT-COLUMBO II

Thanks to TV shows like 'Fringe', 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine', 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys', and 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer', and of course, 'Sliders', we know that alternate TV dimensions contain the counterparts of characters to be found in the main Toobworld.

Which means that this clip from a movie could be that of Lt. Columbo from the "Evil Mirror Universe"......

If he ever said, "Just one more thing" in this TV dimension, I'd be afraid he was going to whip out a knife!

BCnU!

"DOCTOR WHO" - SUPER NINTENDO STYLE

Well, we've probably ruined 'Game Of Thrones' with the game console music, why not continue the trend and massacre any love you might have the theme of 'Doctor Who'?

BCnU!

AND HERE NOW, THE NEWS..... FROM SCOTLAND

This is going out to my friend Helen, in case she's feeling homesick....

A big thanks to Rob Buckley for pointing it out!

BCnU!

YOPLAIT, NO FOUL

From the Huffington Post:

Yoplait has agreed to pull a yogurt commercial that the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) believes could trigger dangerous behavior in those suffering from eating disorders.

"[For those with eating disorders], opening a refrigerator is like walking off a bridge," said Lynn Grefe, president of NEDA. "And to see this behavior in a commercial tells people with eating disorders, see, it's even on TV. It's ok and normal for my head to go through all these mental exercises."

Grefe says that NEDA "applauds" Yoplait and parent company General Mills for agreeing to pull the commercial days after the group voiced concerns.

"We had no idea," Tom Forsythe, VP of Corporate Communications for General Mills, said to the Huffington Post. "The thought had never occurred to anyone, and no one raised the point. We aren't sure that everyone saw the ad that way, but if anyone did, that was not our intent and is cause for concern. We thought it best to take it down."

BCnU!

THE "GAME OF THRONES" THEME MUSIC - 8 BITS' WORTH

If you feel like you just can't wait until tonight's season finale of 'Game Of Thrones', maybe this will curb your appetite......

I'm just afraid it will put you off the show for good!

BCnU!

THE LAST "GAME OF THRONES" PREVIEW FOR SEASON ONE!

Tonight on HBO, at 9 PM ET, the final episode of this first season of 'Game Of Thrones' will air. After the shocking finale of last week's episode, I wonder if the ratings will soar through the roof... or plummet due to the anger of those who hated what happened in Episode 9.

Here's the preview for tonight's episode:

And Entertainment Weekly teases that there's still plenty of time to get rid of yet another favorite character. We'll see.....

BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: WINTON DEAN

Happy Father's Day!

WINTON DEAN

AS SEEN IN:"James Dean: Race With Destiny"
AS PLAYED BY:Joseph Campanella

From the web site "Find A Grave":
Father of legendary actor, James Byron Dean. Mr. Dean was a native of Fairmount, Indiana, where he was born on January 17, 1907, a son of Charles and Emma Woolen Dean. His principal life's work was that of a dental technician. At the time of his death, he resided in Marion, Indiana, and he returned to the spiritual realm on February 21, 1995.

BCnU!