MELNICKS OF THE MULTIVERSE

I guess it's a bit of serendipiteevee that one of my co-workers (Anthony!) asked me last night if I ever link movies to the TV Universe. After all, in my enthusiasm for the movie "John Carter", I wanted to just abscond with the whole movie out of the Cineverse and keep it prisoner in Toobworld. But I got better....

Anyhoo, the reason he asked was because he had been watching the Rock Hudson-Doris Day rom-com "Lover Come Back". And Tony Randall's character, Pete Ramsey, kept saying that he had to see his doctor, Dr. Melnick.

"Wasn't there a Dr. Melnick in 'The Odd Couple'?" he asked me. "Couldn't you connect them somehow?"

Something like that is always tempting, of course, but there were too many O'Bstacles. In the movie, Dr. Melnick was played by Richard Deacon, most famous as Mel Cooley on 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'. On the sitcom version of Neil Simon's play, it was Bill Quinn who portrayed Dr. Melnick. ("Felix, in the world of ulcers, you're what's known as a carrier!")

If there's somebody out there who has no problem with mixing movies and TV shows on a general basis, I suppose this argument could be made. The two Dr. Melnicks could have been related - perhaps as brothers. (There were only nine years separating Bill Quinn from Richard Deacon, and that same span should apply to the characters they played.)

What makes it especially tempting is the fact that both actors were bald - as if that genetic marker was a guar-auhn-tee for this theory of relateeveety.

But if I did want to find a way to link characters played by Quinn and Deacon together, I'd stick with their TV roles - like maybe Mr. Van Rensselaer, who used to frequent 'Archie Bunker's Place', was a cousin or uncle to Mel Cooley and his identical cousin Fred Rutherford.....?

By the way - here's a picture of my buddy Anthony with another pal, Scully... and a rather odd couple of guys they happened to meet.....

BCnU!